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FORUMS Photo Sharing & Discussion Astronomy & Celestial 
Thread started 19 Oct 2016 (Wednesday) 05:28
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Stargazing this weekend. Lens choice?

 
Pricey
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Oct 19, 2016 05:28 |  #1

Hi guys,

Since starting back up and buying new kit a few weeks ago I have a limited lens choice for when I go stargazing this weekend. It's at an official dark sky reserve so I'm hoping for clear skies.

My only choice for lenses are the 18-55 kit lens and the 50mm 1.8 STM. I have a 650D.

I've seen some impressive results with the kit lens. Should I be sticking with that one anyway because it will be wider? Or maybe the 50mm if I get an impressive open landscape to shoot?

Any thoughts? Or any other suggestions for future lenses to try?

Many thanks,

Ryan.


Canon 650D, 18-55mm, 50mm STM, 55-250mm.
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MalVeauX
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Oct 19, 2016 15:02 |  #2

Heya,

The 18-55 is good enough stopped down for landscape, etc. It's not ideal for the stars, if you are implying using this for that. The 50 STM is great for everything, but it's going to be hard to use on APS-C for stars due to limited shutter time before star trailing begins (which is about 6 seconds or so, tops). You can do landscape and stuff with it, and stitch several images into panoramas.

Are you wanting to take images of the night sky? Or just general shots of whatever while at the stargazing event both day and night?

I think you're fine with the kit 18-55. Just go enjoy the sky, don't get too caught up in photographing everything.

More importantly than buying a new lens is to have a tripod & remote shutter release so you can play with what you have.

Very best,


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Pricey
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Oct 19, 2016 16:04 as a reply to  @ MalVeauX's post |  #3

Hey,

Thanks. We will be going up in the day to enjoy the scenery first. I already have a tripod and remote. I was hoping to be able to see the Milky Way.


Canon 650D, 18-55mm, 50mm STM, 55-250mm.
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MalVeauX
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Oct 19, 2016 16:14 |  #4

Heya,

You should be ok with the 18-55 on a tripod for the night sky. At 18mm on your APS-C, you can expose for about 17 seconds before trails become obvious. So if you stop down to F4 at 18mm, it will help a little with the shape of stars and overall sharpness, likely shooting at ISO 3200 as a starting point for 16 seconds. Look at your histogram to have some data in the left 1/4th of the histogram since you won't have light pollution. Focus with live view at 10x magnification on a bright star. Then just sit back, enjoy, and do a few exposures while you night gaze.

If you get into it, I would instead point you towards a tracker before worrying about lenses as a tracker mount will give you a ton of flexibility for exposure time and relieve your camera of ISO level needs. The Star Adventurer is a good starting point ($300). You can use any lens for the milky way then, instead of trying to get the fastest lens you can and still needing a lot of ISO.

The 18-55 will be great for general landscape, it's plenty good at F8 and F11.

I actually wouldn't even take the 50 STM unless you feel the need to do portraits and want soft backgrounds, but I would think in that environment you'd want full depth of field, so if you're stopping down, you might as well have just used the 18-55 for simplicity and convenience.

Very best,


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Pricey
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Oct 19, 2016 17:16 as a reply to  @ MalVeauX's post |  #5

Thanks for the help!


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Stargazing this weekend. Lens choice?
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