Milkyway nightscapes

Just got back from a trip up to my family cabin in Idaho, got a ton of pictures to process even though it was cloudy 3 of the 5 nights I was there. It always blows my mind how huge the Milky Way appears up there, don't know why. The second to last night I was there was probably the best night sky viewing conditions I've ever experienced in my life (even with the mind-boggling amounts of airglow), I had a ton of plans to use my new Star Adventurer tracking mount and two cameras, one for timelapse. When I got to one of the lakes I stopped at that night I ended up throwing out all those plans, just using my Nikon D600 and Rokinon 24mm lens on my tried and true iOptron Skytracker mount and in between shots just staring at the sky. Definitely one of those mind clearing and ultra-satisfying experiences that makes you forget all the day-to-day BS with work and what-not.

Here's one of the many shots I'll be posting, this is Redfish Lake (it doesn't look it, but this is actually a pretty big lake):

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4 shot pano

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/HMkn​2z

So I am very to the forum but loveeeee taking photos. Not super great at it but I am certainly learning. I have a Canon T3i and I am looking at taking that with me to Northwest Ontario in a few weeks to capture a few shots just like these one. I figure its sooooo far north that I should be able to capture some decent Milky Way shots.

My question is for those who are very good at this, will I be needing some kind of rotating attachment to my tripod so I don't get any star streaks in the photo on a 30 second exposure? Or will just my tripod be sufficient enough to capture what I want to get.

Any advice to getting a quality shot with my current equipment?


Canon T3i, Neewer Grip, Neewer NW670 Flash, Canon 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS, Canon 55-250 f/4-5.6 IS, PNY Elite 64gb U3 Class 10 card

mattmiller03 wrote in post #18031164
So I am very to the forum but loveeeee taking photos. Not super great at it but I am certainly learning. I have a Canon T3i and I am looking at taking that with me to Northwest Ontario in a few weeks to capture a few shots just like these one. I figure its sooooo far north that I should be able to capture some decent Milky Way shots.

My question is for those who are very good at this, will I be needing some kind of rotating attachment to my tripod so I don't get any star streaks in the photo on a 30 second exposure? Or will just my tripod be sufficient enough to capture what I want to get.

Any advice to getting a quality shot with my current equipment?


Canon T3i, Neewer Grip, Neewer NW670 Flash, Canon 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS, Canon 55-250 f/4-5.6 IS, PNY Elite 64gb U3 Class 10 card

I'm not even in the same ballpark as these guys, but I think you're going to have some issues with your setup if you want to get shots like theirs. Using your 18-55, I think you're limited to a 20 second exposure time. The T3i doesn't handle noise all that well, and I expect you to need at least a 3200 ISO for these shots. ...and lastly, I believe the further North you go, the harder it is to get a good shot of the MW. I'm in Pennsylvania and wish I had a better view of it. Not gospel, just my 2 cents.

I'm on a forum from the UK/Canada , they tell me all the time about not being able to see hardly any of the MW. One member is at 52 degs latitude and he barely sees' the top of the MW . Shame too cause they see way less than I do at 32 degs but they see a lot that's too far north for me to see .

You need a faster lens than what you have and a 30 second exposure with that lens will still yield star trailing, even 20 seconds will have star trailing. The T3i's ISOless point comes in around ISO 800-1600 with poor sensor saturation and dynamic range above that. With a an exposure of ~20 seconds at f3.5 and ISO 1600 your signal is going to be weak and pushing the settings (you can control) past that will either result in star trails or worse signal to noise ratio. I'd try practicing with the camera, learning about composition and location/timing of the Milky Way (being that far north you won't get much time to capture the core region, if you can at all), and invest in a better lens. I'd look at buying the Rokinon 24mm f1.4, if you can't afford that buy the Rokinon 14mm f2.8, you'll get substantially better images from one of those lenses.

Another option to investing in new glass would be to put that money toward a sky-tracker/polarie/etc mount that will allow you to image longer and overcome some of the hurdles of your slower glass.

A few more from my trip to Stanley, Idaho:

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All great, but I like that last one the best!

Haven't posted in a while as been traveling and hosting a few workshops

Here's some shots from our travels:

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gaabnz wrote in post #18030632
4 shot pano

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/HMkn​2z _DSC7782-Pano-Edit-jpg by Gary Ashton, on Flickr

Haha I've shot there too great spot!

Something a bit different

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Those shots are awesome! Love star bokeh shots

NCHANT wrote in post #18031743
Haha I've shot there too great spot!

Yeah, it was great. We were actually driving down to the beach for a look at something different and saw the hall and stopped straight away and had a look.

Ended up trying to get to the beach, but the gate was closed and I have no idea how far from the gate to the beach. Have to go back in the daylight and have a look around. Same with Wenderholm after we shot the sattelites, gate was shut so we came home.

NCHANT wrote in post #18031724
Haven't posted in a while as been traveling and hosting a few workshops

Here's some shots from our travels:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/HJBL​nt Opo's Milky Way by Mikey Mack, on Flickr

This is really good here , I'd make that one a wall hanger . Shows the MW just right !

The beach is about 2-300m from the gate? Not a bad place, this is quite an old shot from there

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/nVJ3​JK