Understanding the sky

Hi, I am traveling to Kilimanjaro in a week and I am told that it offers some pristine weather for night sky photography.

I have never done the night sky before and I am doing a hurried reading up from the postits in this section. Think I will pick up some basics of what to do - from a technical perspective.

A more practical question - is there a cheat sheet that will tell me what I am seeing'? How do I understand the constellations that I will be seeing? Where is the Milky Way??

My trip dates are 12th to the 19th of September...

Thanks a ton.

ps: I will have my 6D, 24-105 and a good solid tripod with around 100 GB in SD cards....

Go here - http://www.stellarium.​org/ and download it onto your computer. Put in the information as to location and time/date, and it will show you precisely where everything is. As for the milky way, I sort of think you'll just see it without even having to look.

KirkS518 wrote in post #16273192
Go here - http://www.stellarium.​org/ and download it onto your computer. Put in the information as to location and time/date, and it will show you precisely where everything is. As for the milky way, I sort of think you'll just see it without even having to look.

+1 for Stellarium, also in the "sky and viewing options window" you can change the setting for how bright the milky way will be. Enjoy your trip, looking forward to seeing your posts.

Thanks a ton. Donwloading it right now.

Excited about the trek and now about the chance to see some pristine skies....

You will not need to 'find' the milky way.. you will look up and go WOW!.. after about 10~20 minutes you'll suddenly remember your camera.

You might need stellarium to find Andromeda or maybe the LMC and SMC.. if they're visible above the southern horizon.

Buy a red sheet to cover your computer screen, it will be grossly too bright even at its lowest setting: http://www.firstlighto​ptics.com …r-for-laptop-screens.html

available elsewhere too.

Oh and shoot RAW.

have fun

Derek

rfdesigner wrote in post #16273526
Buy a red sheet to cover your computer screen, it will be grossly too bright even at its lowest setting: http://www.firstlighto​ptics.com …r-for-laptop-screens.html

available elsewhere too.

FYI, Stellarium does have a Night Mode. My capture is a poor example though.

Thanks. Have added a waypoint from the Kilimanjaro trek as the location, set altitude to 4000 mtrs (dont know if it makes a big difference) and set the date to around the 14th.

Since I wont have the laptop with me, I will now need to make some notes or draw some samples to take with me. Yes, it will be nice if the sky was really this bright

the jimmy wrote in post #16274679
FYI, Stellarium does have a Night Mode. My capture is a poor example though.

Yes it's good but...

It's not so much the 'red' that matters with these films.. it's that they knock down all light including the red by a substantial fraction. On many laptops "Red Only" is just grossly too bright. And any popups still come up white and kill your night-vision.

anyway not essential, just very handy.

Derek

I spent two weeks on the Amazon river in July. The sky was clear and the views were impressive. The Milky Way was quite impressive. If you'll have a smart phone style cell phone, you can put "google sky map" on it and get something similar but not nearly as nice/detailed as Stellarium on the phone (including a night mode).

rfdesigner wrote in post #16273526
You will not need to 'find' the milky way.. you will look up and go WOW!

On my first trip to Africa we spent a few days on a houseboat on the Zambesi. I woke up at around 4am and went to walk to the end of the boat where the head was. I looked down and went WOW!

There, reflected in the Zambesi, was the Milky Way in all it's dark-sky glory, running along the river to meet itself at the horizon where it arched high into the sky. I just wish I'd brought something wider than 70mm on that first trip but all I have is the memory.