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Hi all, im just wondering what sort of lens I can use with my a580, to take pictures of the sky at night, i.e stars or even the milky way, etc, I assume I need something with as wide a aperture as I can get?
I know that to get a clear image of the moon I have to use a fast shutter speed, but i guess thats to fast for the stars and everything else?
any recommended lens tips please
thanks
 
Think they're may be a tutorial on here, but from memory you need:

-wide open
-tripod (VR/IS off)
-iso at 400-800?
-shutter speed to no more than about 30 mins

Milky Way is quite tricky, you need zero ambient light almost!
 
will those allow me to have a cup of tea at the same time?
cause dam 30 minutes is a long time for one picture, I guess I know some god locations for it, but just wondering if anyone know how to do this on the sea as well?
thanks sorry I have so many questions on the same topic,
thanks
 
For sweepiing star scapes and milkyway shots you'll need to go to a dark site with little light pollution as possible.
The darker the sky, will mean you'll be able to use long exposures.
If there's sky glow from town/city lights then limit your exposures to several minutes and use stacking software to combine many individual exposures.
Think about using some sort of external power supply for the camera too.
 
Is it not no more than 30secs?

I don't think the guys who track use 30min exposures...I believe they use shorter exposures then software stacked.
 
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If you want star trails then up to 30 mins is OK, but for that long an exposure you will need, as Astro has said, a very dark sky, ie well away from the any artificial light. Less than 30 mins will also give you star trails.

If you are after showing the stars as point sources and picking out a little of the detail of nebulae/milky way then you will need a much shorter exposure.

The attached is one of a number of experimental shots. It is from a FZ28 set at its widest lens (35mm equivalent of a 28mm), F2.8 and 60s exposure and trailing is already evident.


Orion60.jpg


Dave
 
I'm defo gonna try this and capture the night sky. I'm getting way much better with my camera now xD
 
I'd favour the several short shots stacked rather than one long one. Mainly this is to keep noise down but also it will allow you to do a little trial and error to frame the shot before committing. I don't know about your camera but mine has an inbuilt option for interval shooting so I just set my exposure on manual, leave AF in manual and ask the camera to take one shot after another and then stack them all together afterwards.

This was one I did a few weeks back. I think it was about 100x 30 second exposures. F 2.8 and ISO 800. Ideally I'd have like to have dropped the ISO and exposed for 4 minutes but I couldn't go over 30 on the camera but an external timer could have sorted that.


Sycamore Gap Tree Stars by G.A.D, on Flickr
 
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Hi, does anyone know the best way to get decent star photos on the Fujifilm HS10?? Thanks
 
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