Very new to Astro Photography. Need an app for Milky Way location.

Up to this point all I've done are star trails, but I've been admiring the Milky Way shots in the posts on this forum for a long time.

I'm going on a trip to Sequoia Nat'l park in October.. and would like to try getting a few decent shots of the Milky Way if mother nature is willing to cooperate.

I've read up on Deep Sky Stacker, and I think I understand what I need to shoot...

I'd like to know where/when the stripe of the milky way will be in the sky for the latitude I am in, but I'm having a difficult time finding an application that can tell me about the Milky Way in general and not specific galaxies.

Ideally an offline app I can run on my laptop. Sadly I have a Blackberry and not an iPhone or Droid.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Stellarium

Go to a site with dark skies and you'll not need an app as the Milky Way should be obvious. If you can't see it with the naked eye after a few minutes dark adaptation then you're probably not going to get a decent image of it.

Having said that, an app like Stellarium is good for letting you know the best times for shooting the Milky Way.

Aaaah. Stellarium! Thank you. I couldn't remember the name of the app I had read about in the past. Thanks both. Frank, I know of the milky way.. but I don't know what direction/time it will be up since I'll be in an unfamiliar area, scouting locations during my first day there...

I appreciate the help!
-TD

being you are in my neck of the woods. drive out to Anza, CA. take the 79 over Temecula. It might be a drive but once you are out there it is well worth it.

Thanks Wolf...
I'm almost the same distance from Anza (Which I didn't know was a town until you mentioned it) as I am from the Anza Borrego state park area... I live n East County.
Another thing I've been wanting to do (Except that it's been freaking HOT!) is to shoot some of the Iron sculptures at dusk/nighttime, and try stacking exposures of both the background (Hopefully the milky way) and the foreground focal points lit via 580 flash or flashlight (Maybe with a colored gel?).

I started out being fascinated by star trails; but now that I've seen the DSS results of the Milky Way in an area that has less than ideal night skies (light pollution) I'd like to broaden my horizons by trying a new form of night photography.

A few years ago, a friend linked me to an image like this (Easter Island.. Another bucket list place) that got me thinking... http://harvestheart.tu​mblr.com/post/61799730​6

I'd like to make a shot like this
http://www.123rf.com …-the-anza-borrego-de.html
with this serpent as the foreground focal point
http://www.sccxterra.c​om/smf/index.php?topic​=1110.0

Tdragone wrote in post #15064468
Aaaah. Stellarium! Thank you. I couldn't remember the name of the app I had read about in the past. Thanks both. Frank, I know of the milky way.. but I don't know what direction/time it will be up since I'll be in an unfamiliar area, scouting locations during my first day there...

I appreciate the help!
-TD

holy crap I forgot about this program too, it was preinstalled on one of my linux distros, it's pretty good, that being said in a pinch if you have a android phone google sky can work.

You know until I started paying closer attention to astronomy I never realized that the milky way is hanging over my head for the majority of the year, a small star chart will show you were the stars are month by month and by day. Have fun

calypsob wrote in post #15239624
You know until I started paying closer attention to astronomy I never realized that the milky way is hanging over my head for the majority of the year, a small star chart will show you were the stars are month by month and by day. Have fun

I'm going to have to find one of these!