My First Attempt at Astrophotography

Here's the Milky Way from my first attempt at astrophotography. After carefully researching every aspect of this, I thought I was well prepared for an attempt, seeing as how I was visiting Yosemite National Park on a night with no moon and clear skies. I bought a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8, some powerful flashlights, and a couple of red filters to go over them so as not to ruin my night vision.

Well, we drove up to Glacier Point, which is where I expected the best, darkest conditions to be. Unfortunately, I left the flashlights at the hotel! On top of that, my 5dII started giving me an "Error 70" message every time I tried to shoot. Fumbling around in the pitch black, I took out the batteries and put them back in, and the camera started working. I still couldn't see a foot in front of me without the flashlights, so I couldn't find the trail out of the parking lot. On top of that, my wife was having a panic attack because, as she later put it, she's "very afraid of the dark". So I made my way over to the trees, focused as best I could. Here's the best shot out of the seven I took. It's shot at f/2.8, ISO 3200 for 30 seconds.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/puHL​nV

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pdvD​Rf

That first shot is awesome

For first attempt I think you did very very good ! I like both and maybe #2 a little better cause it's a little lighter and has a great foreground . Little LP but nothing at all to fret over . Some I been seeing have really blown out the FGs' cause of LP . Too much LP IMHO ruins a good image . You have the right amount here . Not sure as to why trees on the right are darker in the first image . Is the original image dark on the trees also ? Either way the MW shows very nicely in both images . You keep doing what you did with these two images and you'll capture some great images ! Just becareful not to add too much LP yourself from flash lights . BTW you capture M31 really well in that first shot too . Bottom left side of image .

Thanks for the comments, guys. Celestron, thanks so much for pointing out M31! I didn't even see that little guy hiding over there. BTW, the trees on the left were being lit during the shot by a car's headlights as it swung around heading out of the parking lot.

I like the height of that #2 picture really well , shows a lot of the MW . I'd make that a wall hanger myself . On M31 , a lot of people don't realize just how big M31 really is but in a image like this that helps project size when people are curious . M31 is the only galaxie that is compared to our own Milkyway Galaxie . When people wonder what our Galaxie looks like you tell them look at M31 and they can imagine better . Our Milkyway is only one arm of our Milkyway Galaxie and best way to understand that is look at this CLOSEUP of M31 and you see the spiral arms circling the center . That's what our MW looks likes . Some think the sun is the center of our galaxie . It's not , it's the center of our solar system and things in our solar system circle the sun but our solar system is merely just a dotted spot in one of those arms of the milkyway arm and when you see pictures like THIS of a bunch of galaxies just hanging out in the Universe and only heaven knows where the center of the Universe is you can't imagine how far space is ........