Milkyway nightscapes

Please excuse what will no doubt be a blatantly obvious n00b style question but... I assume if you can't actually see the milkyway visually you are unlikely to be able to capture it photographically?

I realise this may sound ridiculous to you seasoned milkywayists but as I seem to live in an area of perpetual light I have nothing to benchmark my experiences on..

I can honestly say I have not actually seen it myself while attempting to capture it and naively assumed its a bit like a DSO where you have to expose long enough under the right conditions to make it visible in a capture

Fairly confident I am pointing my camera in the right direction (according to the plethora of apps I use lol) but despite my best efforts all I really get is 'some' stars...

<tuffty/>

tuffty wrote in post #17960166
Please excuse what will no doubt be a blatantly obvious n00b style question but... I assume if you can't actually see the milkyway visually you are unlikely to be able to capture it photographically?

I realise this may sound ridiculous to you seasoned milkywayists but as I seem to live in an area of perpetual light I have nothing to benchmark my experiences on..

I can honestly say I have not actually seen it myself while attempting to capture it and naively assumed its a bit like a DSO where you have to expose long enough under the right conditions to make it visible in a capture

Fairly confident I am pointing my camera in the right direction (according to the plethora of apps I use lol) but despite my best efforts all I really get is 'some' stars...

<tuffty/>

Hmmm, im not sure about your first statement. The first time i managed to get a good picture of it, i wasnt able to see it with bare eyes until I captured it, and knew its exact position in the sky.

davidfarina wrote in post #17960167
Hmmm, im not sure about your first statement. The first time i managed to get a good picture of it, i wasnt able to see it with bare eyes until I captured it, and knew its exact position in the sky.

Thanks... this is exactly what I was getting at... visually I can't see the milkyway where I am so I am just trying to eliminate as many factors as I can for my inability to be able to capture it.. I have the kit and confident I am pointing in the right direction but trying to work out if its due to my ineptitude or being in too heavy a light polluted area (essentially yellow areas on the darksite map)... or more likely both in my case lol..

I have another location to try when a clear night eventually presents itself... a friend of mine said she can see it from her back garden and they live in a fairly secluded area a little distance from me so will have another go there...

<tuffty/>

tuffty wrote in post #17960176
Thanks... this is exactly what I was getting at... visually I can't see the milkyway where I am so I am just trying to eliminate as many factors as I can for my inability to be able to capture it.. I have the kit and confident I am pointing in the right direction but trying to work out if its due to my ineptitude or being in too heavy a light polluted area (essentially yellow areas on the darksite map)... or more likely both in my case lol..

I have another location to try when a clear night eventually presents itself... a friend of mine said she can see it from her back garden and they live in a fairly secluded area a little distance from me so will have another go there...

<tuffty/>

I understand youre kind of frustrated with this. I was heading out in the middle of the nights to get a picture of the MW but either clouds showed up or light pollution was too bad. I even wondered that maybe im still not good enough to get a picture of it, until one day i got it. Here in switzerland its not so easy to find dark skyes as the cities are all so close to each other. I couldnt see the MW when i captured it, i just knew in which direction to shoot and used a compass. After seeing it on my LCD screen i was really released as it finally worked out for me. And after seeing it on the LCD screen and knowing the position of the MW, i was then able to barely see it with my eyes.

A couple from South Australia on the weekend...... Still some work to go, but undoubtedly my best effort yet.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FSVY​pM

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FPkw​cU

tuffty wrote in post #17960166
Please excuse what will no doubt be a blatantly obvious n00b style question but... I assume if you can't actually see the milkyway visually you are unlikely to be able to capture it photographically?

I realise this may sound ridiculous to you seasoned milkywayists but as I seem to live in an area of perpetual light I have nothing to benchmark my experiences on..

I can honestly say I have not actually seen it myself while attempting to capture it and naively assumed its a bit like a DSO where you have to expose long enough under the right conditions to make it visible in a capture

Fairly confident I am pointing my camera in the right direction (according to the plethora of apps I use lol) but despite my best efforts all I really get is 'some' stars...

<tuffty/>

It depends what you're shooting with as well and the settings used. I notice you live in the UK too (I live in Kent). I shot the Milky Way for the first time last summer when I went just along the coast from Camber Sands using a Canon 600D and a Sigma 17-50 2.8. It showed up but wasn't the best picture as I couldn't push the camera that hard and that was the only time I've ever seen it in person but it was extremely faint. You know when it's so dark that if you look directly at something you can't see it but when you look to the side slightly you can see it, like that and it was incredibly dark where I was. Having upgraded my equipment over christmas I'm hoping to get some better shots this summer.

Not a noob question at all.
Thank God the camera can see much more than we can.
Not a MW so please excuse, just to show the point.
When I took this I could not see any aurora but the 6D could.
Here in the east USA dark sites are a rarity but I'm going to one tomorrow morning
with fingers crossed.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/g52k​NY

Huge difference when you go from letter A to letter E, drives home the point that no matter where you
are get out of the city eh.

I have a 6D and a Samyang 24mm f1.4 lens now... in fairness I was probably shooting more based on my previous setup (50D and 24mm f2.8) and was struggling a little...

The other issue I have is finding somewhere I feel safe and comfortable to shoot... I am not particularly outdoory so tend not to be too relaxed when I am out late... I get better once into it but not being relaxed probably isn't helping either

This was one of my 'better' efforts from my 50D...

IMAGE LINK: http://i84.photobucket​.com …apy/20160305-IMG_8974.jpg

Concerning the Rokinon/Samyang 14mm F2.8 does everybody know that LonelySpeck is developing a SharpStar for it:
http://www.lonelyspeck​.com/
MickeyMack doesn't need it! but for us older blinding photogs anything helps.
But in the meantime here is something else to consider for 'normal' lenses that can accept a filter:
http://www.dpreview.co​m/forums/thread/369270​7
I ordered one for my Sony 28/2, off flee-bay, it was only something like 5 bucks....I only get to attempt MW about two
times a year so I don't know if I'd get to use the SharpStar that often.

tuffty wrote in post #17961282
This was one of my 'better' efforts from my 50D...

I think the very first thing to do is to see at what time the MW core is actually visible. When was this photo taken?
I see you're in the UK, I'm in France. The Milky Way rise around the same time for you and me and at this time of the year it's at 3 a.m in the South-East before moving towards the South.

Later in the year, it will be earlier and in the South-West direction.

You should also shoot with a shorter shutter speed if you use 24mm, around 10 seconds based on the 500 rule : 500 divided by the focal length of your lens = the longest exposure (in seconds) before you start getting startrails :

virginie24jb wrote in post #17961484
I think the very first thing to do is to see at what time the MW core is actually visible. When was this photo taken?
I see you're in the UK, I'm in France. The Milky Way rise around the same time for you and me and at this time of the year it's at 3 a.m in the South-East before moving towards the South.

Later in the year, it will be earlier and in the South-West direction.

You should also shoot with a shorter shutter speed if you use 24mm, around 10 seconds based on the 500 rule : 500 divided by the focal length of your lens = the longest exposure (in seconds) before you start getting startrails :

Hosted photo: posted by virginie24jb in
./showthread.php?p=179​61484&i=i208930823
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

I am not so much interested in capturing the core at this time... any of it would be fine...

I have been using an Android app called PlanIt! for Photographers... for example I am venturing out to a location tonight more as a recce as a friend I used to work with lives nearby and says she has seen the milkyway from her back garden... suggests its a dark enough location so thought it was worth a punt...

MedicineMan4040 wrote in post #17961338
Concerning the Rokinon/Samyang 14mm F2.8 does everybody know that LonelySpeck is developing a SharpStar for it:
http://www.lonelyspeck​.com/
MickeyMack doesn't need it! but for us older blinding photogs anything helps.
But in the meantime here is something else to consider for 'normal' lenses that can accept a filter:
http://www.dpreview.co​m/forums/thread/369270​7
I ordered one for my Sony 28/2, off flee-bay, it was only something like 5 bucks....I only get to attempt MW about two
times a year so I don't know if I'd get to use the SharpStar that often.

Great info! I now want a sharpstar2!

xpfloyd wrote in post #17961596
Great info! I now want a sharpstar2!

I just used mine for the first time last week on my 24mm 1.4 Samyang.

I only used it in the garden at home, but it makes focusing so easy. If you can get it for you lens, you will love it.

Just make sure you remember to take the filter off when you shoot ! My first shot I left in on and was very concerned at the resulting image hahaha. Once its off, its great :P

Fantastic info on the sharpstar, looks like a little bhatinov mask!