
How to take a picture of the Milky Way - breck
http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/michael/blog/1609/index.html#x160912
======
jonknee
I have had some decent success with the Milky Way this year and while this
article is decent, here are a few more tips:

1) Use an app to find where the galactic core will be at what time. This is
harder than it sounds because ideally you want to compose an image with
something interesting in the foreground (a mountain, rock formation, building,
etc). Poor timing, but peak season has already passed this year in the
Northern Hemisphere--it's a Summer pursuit. I use Sun Surveyor, but there are
lots of apps that do this.

2) Focus is extremely critical and very hard to do after it's dark. I set the
focus manually before sunset using a distant object and then use gaffer's tape
on my lens so that I don't accidently bump it later. There is nothing worse
than coming home to a bunch of slightly blurry stars. Do not trust "infinity"
on your lens, it's not accurate!

3) Use the rule of 400 to decide on maximum exposure time. Divide 400 by the
length of your lens to get max seconds (e.g. 400/24 = 16.66s for a 24mm lens).
Some people use 500, but either way you get a nice ballpark. More time than
this and you will get star trails. Neat if that is what you want, awful if you
want a nice shot of the Milky Way. This rule assumes a full frame sensor, so
if you have a crop sensor remember to adjust (a 24mm lens on Micro Four Thirds
would be 48mm for this calc).

A couple of my shots from this year:

[https://www.instagram.com/p/BJBgSTvg-
wO/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BJBgSTvg-wO/)

[https://www.instagram.com/p/BGU-1d0uyJN/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BGU-1d0uyJN/)

~~~
uabstraction
1: You can actually see the galactic core easily with the unaided eye if you
get far enough away from the city. An app will help if there is too much light
pollution, but light pollution will also put a cap on your exposure time.

2: Not a bad idea at all. Mirrorless cameras shine here as well.

3: Sounds about right. Nothing wrong with experimenting also. Different
cameras introduce different amounts of noise at various ISO settings, so the
ideal ISO / shutter speed will vary. Again, if trailing doesn't get you, you
need to worry about light pollution eventually washing out the photo.

Those are some beautiful shots! Here are my horribly processed contributions:

[http://i.imgur.com/IO5A43p.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/IO5A43p.jpg) \- M13
through a 5" Maksutov Cassegrain

[http://i.imgur.com/jYBHJul.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/jYBHJul.jpg) \- Northern
sky in Maine. Milky Way was overpowered by Augusta's light polution.

The processing is a lot more difficult than the shooting IMO... lots of fun
though.

~~~
jonknee
> 1: You can actually see the galactic core easily with the unaided eye if you
> get far enough away from the city. An app will help if there is too much
> light pollution, but light pollution will also put a cap on your exposure
> time.

I always line up shots during the day, apps are useful so that you can frame
things before it is dark (e.g. directly over a rock formation, mountain, old
barn, whatever). You can see both place and time, so you'll know if it will be
dark enough when it is where you want. Finding a good location for an
interesting shot is the hardest part IMO.

------
BeetleB
The article is fairly poor, compared to other ones. I used to have a list of
good ones, but lost the list :-(

Googling, these look familiar:

[http://www.lonelyspeck.com/how-to-process-milky-way-
astropho...](http://www.lonelyspeck.com/how-to-process-milky-way-
astrophotography-in-adobe-lightroom/)

[http://petapixel.com/2015/08/13/how-to-post-process-a-
milky-...](http://petapixel.com/2015/08/13/how-to-post-process-a-milky-way-
photo-in-lightroom/)

[https://www.slrlounge.com/process-milky-way-photos-
maximum-e...](https://www.slrlounge.com/process-milky-way-photos-maximum-
effect/)

The last 2 are about post-processing. You will __not __get good Milky Way
photos without serious post-processing!

~~~
mangamadaiyan
To me, it looks like the article is intended for an interested "not yet
beginner", to just get them to try out astrophotography. I think it does what
it set out to do.

FWIW, Michael Covington has written some fairly detailed astrophotography
books:

[http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/books.html](http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/books.html)

They are well worth reading.

------
sakopov
A couple of links i want to throw out for those who are interested in locating
and shooting the Milky Way.

Check out Clear Dark Sky for star-gazing forecasts [1] and download Sky Walk
on your phone for locating the Milky Way (along with just about anything else
you're looking for) [2].

For those of you guys near Denver area check out Last Chance, Colorado for
some VERY dark night skies.

Here is how i shoot with DSLR...

1\. Get a sturdy tripod.

2\. Get a remote-release (preferably with timer) to avoid any vibrations
during exposure. They're typically around $20.

3\. Shoot on the lowest f-stop you lens supports. I shoot with f/2.8.

4\. Zoom all the way out.

5\. Set the focus on manual & focus your lens on infinity. You'll typically
see the infinity symbol on the lens. If you don't have one, just rotate the
focus ring all the way until it doesn't move and then typically just a notch
back (2-3 millimeters). I find that that usually works. Some folks do this
before they get out at night to shoot. You just have to be extra careful and
not touch the lens or make a mark on the lens so that you can always set it
back.

6\. Set your ISO to anywhere from 400-800.

7\. Cover the eye-piece.

8\. Start shooting! Your exposure time is probably going to be somewhere
between 10-20 seconds to get a crystal clear shot. So this is where you
experiment with ISOs and exposure times. This will all depend on how dark your
dark spot is :)

Shooting the night sky is fairly trivial. Finding a good spot is incredibly
difficult.

I don't do a lot of Milky Way stuff since it's such a pain to find a good
spot, but i do all night time stuff pretty much the same way [3]

[1] [http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/](http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/)

[2] [http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk-2-guide-sky-night-
day.ht...](http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk-2-guide-sky-night-day.html)

[3]
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeyakopov/27003195396/in/da...](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeyakopov/27003195396/in/dateposted/)

~~~
gf263
Shooting around F/8 will lead far greater sharpness than f/2.8 if you're
focusing on infinity

~~~
BeetleB
F/8 will allow so little light in you really won't get much of the Milky Way.

The usual suggestion is the lowest F-stop, and the widest lens. On my 21mm, at
F/2.8 shooting at ISO 1600 for 30 seconds, I get a poor Milky Way. Were I to
do it at F/8.0, I'd get virtually no milky way.

------
pp19dd
Unrelated to imaging, this domain jogged the memory. Author is the guy who
created the "NOPPP" \- no parts pic programmer:
[http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/noppp/](http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/noppp/)

More than a decade ago I was starting out with microcontrollers, and that was
the first programmer I built from scavenged parts. He also wrote a book (PDF
available on site) for absolute beginners to microcontrollers that was very
helpful. The man is a famous polymath, and it was good to run across his site
again.

~~~
eventualhorizon
This is certainly a nice surprise. I took my first CS course from Dr.
Covington. I remember on the first day of class he went through the roll of
70+ students telling almost everyone the linguistic origin and meanings of
their names.

He has many interests and seems to be an expert in nearly all of them. I
consider him to be the smartest person I've ever met. Thanks for posting this.

------
paulmd
The real trick is to shoot from a location with low light-pollution. Urban and
suburban areas are incredibly polluted and equipment can't fix a view that
just isn't there. In dark-sky areas, the Milky Way is easily visible to the
naked eye.

The red Hoya Intensifier filter helps somewhat - it cuts out the spectrum that
is emitted by sodium-vapor lamps commonly used for street lighting. It's not
perfect but it helps.

You either need to use a fast enough shutter speed that you won't get star
traces from the Earth's rotation, or get a tracking mount that can follow the
rotation.

High ISOs (high sensor sensitivity) are really helpful for keeping the shutter
speeds down. Modern cameras have made huge progress on high-ISO performance
with good noise levels. The Sony A7S is particularly good.

For Milky Way photography you will want a fast wide-angle lens.
Astrophotography is considered one of the most challenging tasks for a lens
because you'll be shooting near wide open. Modern computer-aided-design lenses
with exotic glass and aspheric surfaces significantly outperform older lenses.
I am a big fan of Samyang's lineup, their lenses are top-notch for reasonable
prices.

------
patrickdavey
Come to the next Railscamp in New Zealand (march ish). This picture: [0] was
taken there the last time we had it. Killer skies in the Southern Hemisphere
;)

[0]:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/malclocke/13055571855/in/album...](https://www.flickr.com/photos/malclocke/13055571855/in/album-72157642137736655/)

------
rbritton
I've found this pretty useful in finding the best locations to do
astrophotography:
[https://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/overlay/dark.htm...](https://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2006/overlay/dark.html)

You can use the same general approach for Aurora photos if the solar activity
is high enough for your location too.

My favorites:

[https://ryanbritton.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/Aurora.jp...](https://ryanbritton.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/Aurora.jpg)

[https://ryanbritton.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/10/Sagittari...](https://ryanbritton.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/10/Sagittarius.jpg)

[https://ryanbritton.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/07/Galaxy.jp...](https://ryanbritton.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/07/Galaxy.jpg)

------
Yhippa
This is one of my favorite hobbies when I get to a spot with lower light
pollution than I'm used to. If it helps you can use tools like Google Sky Map
to see where the sun is relative to where you're aiming. I am cheap so I ended
up getting a Rokinon FE14M-C 14mm F2.8 Ultra Wide Lens for my DSLR. No
autofocus but you'll be shooting at infinity anyway.

For inspiration check out
[https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography](https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography).
A lot of the people who post will share the tricks of their trade and there
are some awfully impressive shots I've seen.

Edit: The reddit sub also has a list of public data for you to try your post-
processing skills on:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/2urd0p/ra...](https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/2urd0p/rastrophotography_public_data_donation_drive/).

~~~
rconti
What's the significance of where the sun is? Would the Milky Way be in a fixed
position relative to the sun?

I'll have to give this a try. Unfortunately the least light-polluted place I
often visit, up around 8000ft, there are tall mountains to the south.

~~~
Jack000
I think the sun would add haze to the horizon and obscure the stars near
sunrise/sunset?

Also because the solar system is on the galactic plane, for half of the year
(winter in the northern hemisphere) the galactic center is behind the sun.

------
pawelwentpawel
Perfect timing! I was post processing my some of my night photography pictures
recently. Maybe a silly question (I'm definitely not an astronomy pro) but, is
that the milky way I got on my pic here? -
[https://www.instagram.com/p/BKWqWHZAQps/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BKWqWHZAQps/)

~~~
debeggar
Yes it is the milky way band. The next time you can search for Milky way on
sky apps like Google Sky map and point your camera in that direction.

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pwarner
If you have a reasonable camera and tripod you need to try this. I caught
comet Lovejoy: a dozen green pixels out of 16 million.... But I caught it,
without any experience or too fancy a setup. Also fun, point at the darkest,
emptiest spot of sky and be amazed at all the stars you see in the photo.
Rather fun.

------
Jack000
I always thought this would be a great application of computational
photography. Take a bunch of shots, segment stars/foreground with optical
flow, then stack with no star trails.

~~~
jonknee
Yes, that is a popular technique. Lots of apps to do it too, Starry Landscape
Stacker is a good one.

