G15 and Night Sky Photos

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on taking night sky photos. At first, I thought the 15 sec exposure limit would be a show-stopper, but it looks like folks are taking some beautiful photos of the Milky Way, etc.

I'm just curious what the best camera settings are for capturing that faint light and getting great shots.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I think the main issue with night shots is anything slower than 1sec limits the ISO... I found this out the hard way trying to shoot the northern lights...

I agree with evoasis

granite4brains wrote in post #16397257
Hello,

I'm looking for some advice on taking night sky photos. At first, I thought the 15 sec exposure limit would be a show-stopper, but it looks like folks are taking some beautiful photos of the Milky Way, etc.

I'm just curious what the best camera settings are for capturing that faint light and getting great shots.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Basic astrophotography...
Sturdy tripod
Clear dark skies (as possible)
If you don't have a tracking mount then you will be limited by the exposure time. Too long of an exposure, the stars will start to trail.
Use a wide aperture
Turn off IS (image stabilization) when using a tripod and long exposure.
Use either the camera's timer, or a remote trigger to reduce the chance of vibration when activating the shutter.

Start reading thru the Astronomy and Celestial Talk forum, there is a lot of good information there, and you can ask specific questions. To post your shots, and see what others are doing, go to the Astronomy and Celestial "Photo Sharing" forum.

Good luck, and post back with your results.

Thanks folks. I ended up getting the Canon Hack Development Kit, which allows longer exposures than the max of 15 secs, amongst other settings like ISO, f-stop, etc.

Got a few okay photos on my first attempt. But, I don't see this camera making the Milky Way pop too much. Longer than a 30 sec exposure and I think you risk detecting some star movements, but it's just not getting enough light in that time. The ISO of 3200 is pretty darn noisy too.

But, I'll be ordering a 6D soon, so I think that will be a bit better

It does get the night sky in general okay, though.

http://granite4brains.​smugmug.com …15-November-2nd/i-N7GqWQZ

Thanks for the tip on the astrophotography forum, didn't notice that on here before. I'll go there for any further questions.

I was going to suggest it, I keep a spare memory card with CHDK installed and locked for use:

http://chdk.wikia.com/​wiki/Prepare_your_SD_c​ard


It's just a pain is all... ISO80 at more than 1 second? cmon...

granite4brains wrote in post #16435445
Thanks folks. I ended up getting the Canon Hack Development Kit, which allows longer exposures than the max of 15 secs, amongst other settings like ISO, f-stop, etc.

Got a few okay photos on my first attempt. But, I don't see this camera making the Milky Way pop too much. Longer than a 30 sec exposure and I think you risk detecting some star movements, but it's just not getting enough light in that time. The ISO of 3200 is pretty darn noisy too.

But, I'll be ordering a 6D soon, so I think that will be a bit better

It does get the night sky in general okay, though.

http://granite4brains.​smugmug.com …15-November-2nd/i-N7GqWQZ

Thanks for the tip on the astrophotography forum, didn't notice that on here before. I'll go there for any further questions.