photographing the stars

[pmiddleditch]

this may have been covered before so if so a pointer to the posts

Nightime photography,photographing the stars,clear sky.i will be using my Fuji s5 pro,i have a range of lenses and will of course be using a Tripod and would like to know what lens you would use and which are the best camera settings to use and length of exposure

any advise will be greatly appreciated and if you have a link to similar images with EXIF data that too would be appreciated

many thanks

peter

 

[DaveKing]

I did a stargazing trip in New Zealand a few weeks ago. During the trip I was advised; put the camera in bulb mode, use ISO800, and the lens wide open (F2.8). The camera was then put on a tracking mount and a 5min exposure was set. This was the result:

Without a tracking mount I would use similar settings, but keep the exposure lower than 30seconds as any longer and you will start to get star trails

 

[hollis_f]

In Botswana 18 months back I got this with a 30 second exposure and my 10-22mm lens. However, to get something like this, or Dave's shot of the same bit of sky, you really do need dark skies.

 

[pmiddleditch]

will definately be dask sky as i would only consider this when the moon is new rather than full

any other advise on best lenses to use or other camera settings, i dont mind trial and error but dont want to be niles off


peter

 

[Manchesterr]

I did a stargazing trip in New Zealand a few weeks ago. During the trip I was advised; put the camera in bulb mode, use ISO800, and the lens wide open (F2.8). The camera was then put on a tracking mount and a 5min exposure was set. This was the result:

Without a tracking mount I would use similar settings, but keep the exposure lower than 30seconds as any longer and you will start to get star trails

Dave, what's "bulb mode"?

 

[Spoony]

Dave, what's "bulb mode"?

Bulb mode is a setting which opens the shutter when the trigger is pressed and only closes when you push the trigger again (use a remote to avoid camera shake)

 

[Splog]

Just to add to the advice you've already been given...

You really need a wide angle lens or ultra wide even better. If you don't have any means of tracking the apparent movement of the stars then you will struggle to get exposures much more than 20 secs or perhaps 30. I don't know if your camera has noise removal? but if it does and your only taking single frames then use it and up the ISO to as high as you dare, or you can take a dark frame immediately afterwards and subtract that in PS. If you can keep repositioning the camera then take as many shots as you can and use something like DSS software to stack them along with several dark frames.

This was tracked..



So many stars! Our galaxy and a UFO by SteveP!, on Flickr

 

[Manchesterr]

Bulb mode is a setting which opens the shutter when the trigger is pressed and only closes when you push the trigger again (use a remote to avoid camera shake)

Cheers

I had a play with this last night, and wouldn't have known what it was till you replied. Very useful though.