Need Milky Way tips (Sigma 10-20)

So I'm going to Mexico in October and based on some photos I've found this will be the first time I've ever been able to see the Milky Way, so of course I want to document it.

I have:

Canon 7D
Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6
Sigma 30mm 1.4

I've found in my research that most people like to shoot wide open at ~f/2.8, so I could use the 30 1.4 for that, but if there's anything in the foreground I want to include (palm trees, buildings, whatever) it will likely be too much zoom, right? With f/4 be open enough if I use a high ISO on the 7D and maybe 30 second exposures?

Hi Sam,

If you want to take a nice landscape crowned by the milky way you´ll need some work.
First make sure you know where the milky way is, use Stellarium (free) to familiarize with the sky.

You will need to take 2 exposures, one for the landscape (ground) and one for the sky. Many times night landscape photographers will take the foreground shot a few hours before the sky shot, otherwise it may be just too dark for any detail. If you just ant silhouettes you can take both shots at the same time.

I´d go with the 10-20 lens.

Use it at 10mm, F5.6 for the foreground and find the ISO and shutter speed that gives you a nice detail.

For the sky shoot wide open at ISO1600 for 20 or 30 seconds making sure the stars are round even in the frame borders, if you find trails reduce exposure time. If everything is round increase exposure time until you find the maximum time you can expose with round stars.

Then you just need to blend both shots!

SamHunter wrote in post #10911616
So I'm going to Mexico in October and based on some photos I've found this will be the first time I've ever been able to see the Milky Way, so of course I want to document it.

I have:

Canon 7D
Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6
Sigma 30mm 1.4

I've found in my research that most people like to shoot wide open at ~f/2.8, so I could use the 30 1.4 for that, but if there's anything in the foreground I want to include (palm trees, buildings, whatever) it will likely be too much zoom, right? With f/4 be open enough if I use a high ISO on the 7D and maybe 30 second exposures?

MHO.......

Take plenty of memory and ALWAYS shoot with RAW (+JPEG if you want). That way, you can use dark frames and the like with DeepSkyStacker. If you don't shoot RAW, it doesn't like it

Also check out some shots with the 1.4 before you go. Distortion may be a big problem if you want to stack later.

I wouldn't think the 30 would be too much zoom. If you can, just move further back.

Thanks I really appreciate it