A Guide to Astrophotography: Capturing the Milky Way

Good stuff!

I think the key for me is just a wide fast lens, with ISO 1600-3200, shutter 15 seconds or so.  Not sure if it’s me bumping the camera or something, but feels like if I go beyond 15 seconds my stars start becoming little lines.

What focal length lens do you use?  The little lines you see are called star trails and oftentimes it’s because you are using too long of a shutter speed for the focal length of your lens.  There is a general rule of 600.  You divide 600 by your focal length and that’s the maximum shutter speed you can use.  For example, if you have a 24mm lengths, 600/24 = 25 seconds.

Wow I had no idea!

I usually use an 18mm or a 28mm for astro shots.   I should be ok there…weird.

Chris- it could also be that your lens is more susceptible to “coma” especially if it’s the stars closer to the edge of the photo make little lines.  This is usually is lens-dependent and certain lenses are more likely to experience coma than others.  What’s your setup for astrophotography?

You could be right. Here’s my full setup:  https://kit.com/chrisisawesome/backpacking-camera-gear

My camera is a Sony A7rii, and I found that problem I believe on my 28mmF2 and assumed it was universal.  Perhaps I was wrong and I should try a longer exposure on my 18mmF2.8.   The image quality has been great really, as long as I don’t go too long on the exposure.  But now I’m curious if it could be even better.

This has been super interesting!  I think I need to do some more testing before my next backpacking trip.  Thanks for the great info!!