Recommendation for Milky Way/night sky

I

insomniac

Suspended / Banned
Messages
172
Edit My Images
No
Hi all,

I'll be spending a couple of weeks in a national park in southern Africa towards the end of October. There's virtually no light pollution, so hopefully I can get a couple of nice shots of the Milky Way/night sky.

In addition to the telephoto, I plan to carry my trusty Tamron 28-75mm. Do you think this will suffice, or shall I take a wide-angle 10-24mm too?

Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
I think it would be an opportunity wasted not to take some nice wide angle shots.
 
Take the wide angle, definately. You may not need to shoot at 10mm but you will want wider than 28mm generally.
 
As you mentioned Milky Way you will want to avoid the stars trailing so the 600 rule is useful.

600/(focal length x crop factor) = maximum exposure in seconds before the stars start to appear as trails.

It is not an absolute rule and is different depending on where in the sky your are photographing but its a good place to start a few experiments.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
As you mentioned Milky Way you will want to avoid the stars trailing so the 600 rule is useful.

600/(focal length x crop factor) = maximum exposure in seconds before the stars start to appear as trails.

It is not an absolute rule and is different depending on where in the sky your are photographing but its a good place to start a few experiments.

Dave
Click to expand...

Or, get one of these types of things:

http://www.vixenoptics.com/mounts/polarie.html
or
http://www.astrotrac.com/
 
Thanks for the suggestions, looks like the wide angle is coming too!

Alas, I'm trying to limit my gear on this trip, so weight is a bit of a problem (the reason that the 10-24mm was initially being left behind).
 
insomniac said:
Alas, I'm trying to limit my gear on this trip, so weight is a bit of a problem (the reason that the 10-24mm was initially being left behind).
Click to expand...

I was going to say that. Last time I went to the Maldives I borrowed a tracking mount to enable me to do long night sky exposures. But it was so big and heavy, I left it at home.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top