Milkyway nightscapes

Looking at that Mickey is an OMG moment.

That time lapse is awesome!...

<tuffty/>

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17949876
Finally got around to processing a bunch of the timelapse shots I had taken the last few weekends, poor together a short clip of what I've done so far this year:

(make sure you set the quality to 1080p)

What intervals where you shooting at for this and how many shots roughly? I might give it a try now the Samyang has arrived

<tuffty/>

tuffty wrote in post #17954393
What intervals where you shooting at for this and how many shots roughly? I might give it a try now the Samyang has arrived

<tuffty/>

Each shot was a 30 second exposure, ISO 1600, f2.8 with a 2 second interval between shots. With the Samyang I'd probably do a 15 second exposure at f1.4 and ISO 1600, with a 2 second interval. You can do longer intervals between shots if you want, I just prefer a smoother timelapse. Remember, with timelapse the more frames you gather the longer the video and rather than do some crazy time slowing effect during rendering I'd rather shoot more frames. I think Milky Way timelapse looks best at 24 frames per second, slowing to 20 frames per second for those "slo-mo" shots, 30 fps is a little too fast.

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17954497
Each shot was a 30 second exposure, ISO 1600, f2.8 with a 2 second interval between shots. With the Samyang I'd probably do a 15 second exposure at f1.4 and ISO 1600, with a 2 second interval. You can do longer intervals between shots if you want, I just prefer a smoother timelapse. Remember, with timelapse the more frames you gather the longer the video and rather than do some crazy time slowing effect during rendering I'd rather shoot more frames. I think Milky Way timelapse looks best at 24 frames per second, slowing to 20 frames per second for those "slo-mo" shots, 30 fps is a little too fast.

Thanks dude... need to get comfortable with the new setup (6D + Samyang) and actually get a picture of the milky way... my previous attempts have not been very good so far... lack of experience, kit and the fact the UK seems to be lit up like a christmas tree despite the fact I live in the Cotswolds...

Looking clear tomorrow night (a rare occurrence at this time of the year) so will see what I can pull off... if you don't hear from me in the next day or so you can assume it didn't go well lol

<tuffty/>

tuffty wrote in post #17954886
Thanks dude... need to get comfortable with the new setup (6D + Samyang) and actually get a picture of the milky way... my previous attempts have not been very good so far... lack of experience, kit and the fact the UK seems to be lit up like a christmas tree despite the fact I live in the Cotswolds...

Looking clear tomorrow night (a rare occurrence at this time of the year) so will see what I can pull off... if you don't hear from me in the next day or so you can assume it didn't go well lol

<tuffty/>

If you're not already using a site like this to determine the light pollution in your area, you should:

http://darksitefinder.​com/maps/world.html

I can start getting usable pics of the Milky Way in an orange/yellow zone, so if you're not in an area at least that dark you won't get much. Unfortunately unless you go up to Scotland you're not going to get into any truly dark skies, it's astounding how little dark skies there are in Europe (same with the east coast of the US, another reason I'm really happy to live in Utah/Western United States).

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17955103
If you're not already using a site like this to determine the light pollution in your area, you should:

http://darksitefinder.​com/maps/world.html

I can start getting usable pics of the Milky Way in an orange/yellow zone, so if you're not in an area at least that dark you won't get much. Unfortunately unless you go up to Scotland you're not going to get into any truly dark skies, it's astounding how little dark skies there are in Europe (same with the east coast of the US, another reason I'm really happy to live in Utah/Western United States).

Yeah, have seen that before... I am essentially in a yellow zone... there is a "lime" area within a reasonable distance to me though so will investigate areas of interest there

Another thing to consider is your shooting direction and the light pollution in that direction. You might get better results shooting from a yellow zone in the direction of a green zone vs shooting from a green zone in the direction of a red (or worse) zone. Basically you should shoot in the direction of minimum light pollution, if a city/town is on the horizon or in the direction of the milky way you will get worse results. Unfortunately, based on that map, you're kind of screwed. I'd try shooting someplace South/Southeast of Evesham.

Well... I gave it a go but there is simply too much light pollution near where I live so I will plan a trip further afield into a known dark sky area in the UK and try again... spent 2 hours out tonight and nothing really to show for it...

While I expect my technique not to be the best as yet and would need tweaking through experience its clear that I need darker skies than my localised area can provide if I am to succeed in getting anything close to a milky way shot

Ah well... all gotta start somewhere

<tuffty/>

I'm not sure if it will help for milky way pictures, having not yet tried any and being new to this, but you might consider an IDAS LPS D1 light pollution filter to give you some edge against pollution, given your situation - first light optics in the UK sell them: 77mm copies are eye-wateringly expensive (around £280), but I've found my 72mm filter on my ef 200mm f/2.8 to make a meaningful difference. My skies are heavily light polluted to the north, but less so to the south, so I don't have quite the extreme problems you do. My problem is more one of cloudy skies when the moon is out of the way - 3 decent nights since November (the last one was last night, which I frittered away testing my Sigma 20mm f/1.4)

chris

Chris Bellamy wrote in post #17956795
I'm not sure if it will help for milky way pictures, having not yet tried any and being new to this, but you might consider an IDAS LPS D1 light pollution filter to give you some edge against pollution, given your situation - first light optics in the UK sell them: 77mm copies are eye-wateringly expensive (around £280), but I've found my 72mm filter on my ef 200mm f/2.8 to make a meaningful difference. My skies are heavily light polluted to the north, but less so to the south, so I don't have quite the extreme problems you do. My problem is more one of cloudy skies when the moon is out of the way - 3 decent nights since November (the last one was last night, which I frittered away testing my Sigma 20mm f/1.4)

chris

I hear yah... weather sucks at the moment... makes it very difficult to plan going anywhere other than local... almost guarantee that if I plan a trip to Exmoor or Brecon that it will be cloudy for the whole duration (along with rain and wind just to make a point!)

£280 for a filter is a little excessive lol...

I have an area of lower pollution (Northleach and surrounding areas) I might try as thats not too far from me but its fairly feature less so going to mainly trees as foreground interest lol

<tuffty/>

Chris Bellamy wrote in post #17956795
I'm not sure if it will help for milky way pictures, having not yet tried any and being new to this, but you might consider an IDAS LPS D1 light pollution filter to give you some edge against pollution, given your situation - first light optics in the UK sell them: 77mm copies are eye-wateringly expensive (around £280), but I've found my 72mm filter on my ef 200mm f/2.8 to make a meaningful difference. My skies are heavily light polluted to the north, but less so to the south, so I don't have quite the extreme problems you do. My problem is more one of cloudy skies when the moon is out of the way - 3 decent nights since November (the last one was last night, which I frittered away testing my Sigma 20mm f/1.4)

chris

Light pollution filters are not clearly a mean to an end or an end to itself, but please note that there is no such thing as clear dark sky. Period. Do the right thing and save your money.
Rest of what is discussed are all true. Even for a so so location, there is a way to bring out its best.

I'm heading to Death Valley for the new moon next week/weekend. Other than the Racetrack, any suggestions for places/foregrounds?

We are going to give it a go Mon or Tuesday....a two hour drive to this kind of light-

Pretty cool map, but I'd say it's over estimated Auckland's Light Pollution.

Here's a screenshot with some of the locations I have had very dark skies at with success. A is about 2kms from our home

A: https://www.flickr.com …816/in/datepost​ed-public/
B: https://www.flickr.com …243/in/datepost​ed-public/
C: https://www.flickr.com …633/in/datepost​ed-public/
D: https://www.flickr.com …714/in/datepost​ed-public/
E: https://www.flickr.com …022/in/datepost​ed-public/