Milkyway nightscapes

jtsmith90 wrote in post #17386210
Thank you so much I'm going to test this. An post the shot if it comes out well.

You can get great shots without stacking. Make sure your sky is properly dark, i.e far enough away from cities that you escape the light pollution. Then use 400/focal length as a starting point to get exposure time I.e. For a 16mm lens 400/16 = 25 seconds max. Set your ISO at say 3200 and take a test shot. If you have star trailing lower your shutter time. If you haven't picked up enough stars raise your ISO. Tweak settings from there.

Many of the great shots you see in this thread are single exposures

EDIT - I just noticed you have a crop camera. The formula for that should be 400/(focal length x 1.6)

xpfloyd wrote in post #17386539
You can get great shots without stacking. Make sure your sky is properly dark, i.e far enough away from cities that you escape the light pollution. Then use 400/focal length as a starting point to get exposure time I.e. For a 16mm lens 400/16 = 25 seconds max. Set your ISO at say 3200 and take a test shot. If you have star trailing lower your shutter time. If you haven't picked up enough stars raise your ISO. Tweak settings from there.

Many of the great shots you see in this thread are single exposures

EDIT - I just noticed you have a crop camera. The formula for that should be 400/(focal length x 1.6)

Thankyou I'll give it a shot.

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share this shot single exposure shot i took at Lake Pukaki , New Zealand

We spent new years week at Amboseli National Park in Kenya, so I was finally able to get a chance at some dark, isolated skies away from city light; unfortunately, the few days after new years were approaching a full moon, so there was a lot of moonlight in the sky.

Anyways, I still snagged a few cool shots with my newly acquired Bower 14mm and my 60D. My understanding is that the MW core isn't visible this time of year in the southern hemisphere, but I think I may have captured some portions of the milky way. I looked at a few various processing guides, and I attempted to add some gradients to brighten and enhance the colorful regions. I had fun shooting and editing these shots, it was amazing to see so many stars pop out.

Can you astro experts tell me if I actually captured the edges of the milky way in these photos? Did I overdo it trying to enhance those clusters, or do these look ok? First real attempt at getting the milky way, so appreciate any C&C for the next time I get somewhere dark enough to shoot star shots.
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1) Cleanest shot, ISO 1600, but less stars visible. The brighter blue in the middle is where I attempted to bump out and enhance the main group of stars.

Went to Michigan's Upper Peninsula last summer to grab some star shots

octavenoize wrote in post #17389449
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share this shot single exposure shot i took at Lake Pukaki , New Zealand

I really like this image. What was lighting the foreground?

Who's getting Milky Way withdrawals?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pWY3​da

I am having horrible withdrawals! Can't wait until spring.

IMAGE LINK: http://montywalters.sm​ugmug.com/Travel/New-Mexico/i-95pKkwG/A

You do know that even tho the north end of the Milkyway is not as exciting you can still take images of the North Milkyway . That's something that surprises me is that people that have new cameras with those really high ISOs' are not even atempting to image . Heck when you see an imag that shows the MW from horizon to horizon that should make some try the North end .

Here's the north end. Ignorance is bliss - I didn't notice the south end was more exciting!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pAgV​Yh

AnnieMacD wrote in post #17394669
Here's the north end. Ignorance is bliss - I didn't notice the south end was more exciting!

South MW is wider , more brighter , has hundreds of DSOs' and has the TeaPot (Sagittarius) and Scorpio constellations which are the two most exciting constellations in our night sky for imaging . Yours is a beautiful shot but that's cause of the aurora and northern lights . Try getting a good image of the N. MW when the sky is clear and no auroras . I'm talking about like this one of Bryan Hansel :

http://www.northshorea​rtscene.com …2/11/hansel-milky-way.jpg

Thanks, I'll try, if we ever get another clear night!