This entry will focus on the aspects of planning, gear, and the execution of photographing the Milky Way. I will cover post processing in a future post. Before I understood how to take photos of the night sky and stars, it always seemed like a highly technical and advanced version of photography that was above my ability. Looking at beautiful images of the Milky Way core was enjoyable, but not something that I understood. I’m going to tell you exactly how I plan and execute my astro photography trips so that you can go out and get the exact same type of images for yourself, no matter what gear you have.
Virtually every DSLR and mirrorless camera today has the ability to capture night sky images. Whether you own a beginner or advanced camera or whether it’s brand new or many years old, doesn’t matter. Of course the newer technology and latest cameras will have better high ISO capability with better low light performance, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t get fantastic results with older camera bodies. At the time of writing this, my camera is coming up on six years and is still producing incredible Milky Way images. The piece of gear that will make a big difference in your ability to get good results is lenses. You’ll want to use your lens with the fastest aperture which lets the most amount of light reach the sensor. Generally, f4 and faster will allow you to take nice images of the Milky Way. This summer I’ve been enjoying using two primes to shoot the Milky Way which are my 28mm f2 and 50mm f2. The maximum aperture of f2 is fantastic for letting in a large amount of light which gives me great results. That said, if you own an 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens for example, shooting at the fastest aperture of f3.5 will work great. You don’t need to go out and buy an expensive lens to be able to do astro photography. For Nikon DX shooters, the 35mm f1.8 is a great and inexpensive option that would work really well for photographing the night sky.
Canyon Rim, Central Oregon August 2020. Sony 28mm f2
The other piece of essential gear is a tripod. Depending on your settings, you’ll be taking exposures of around 15sec on average give or take, so camera stability is a must in this situation. I also use a remote to trigger the shutter so I don’t have to physically push the button on the camera which helps me avoid any shake or movement. You can also just use a self timer which works well. So now that you’ve got all of the gear that you need, you can start planning your astro photography trips!
When photographing the Milky Way, it’s important to pay attention to the moon cycle. Ideally, you will be able to shoot the night sky during a new moon. The reason for this is that when the moon is present while shooting the Milky Way, it can be far too bright and essentially washes out the stars and the rest of the night sky. When you photograph the Milky Way without the brightness of the moon, it allows your camera sensor to collect all of that star detail without being washed out. The several days before, during, and after a new moon are the best time to shoot. However, you can photograph the Milky Way during other times of the month if you plan accordingly. Look at the schedule when the moon will rise and set. There are times during the summer here in Oregon where I live, that the Milky Way is in the right position and the moon hasn’t risen yet, giving me a window of time that I can safely photograph the stars before the moon brightness washes out the sky.
Mt. Jefferson, July 2020. Zeiss Loxia 50mm f2
When planning to photograph the Milky Way, you absolutely need clear skies. In Oregon, that means that Milky Way season is generally May-September because of weather. I use two apps to figure out the position and timing of where the Milky Way will be on the night that I am going to photograph. These are Stellarium and Skyview Lite. Both of these are free which is nice. Using these apps, I am able to dial in exactly when the Milky Way will be in the position that I am looking for. An example would be the photo to the right, of Mt. Jefferson where the Milky Way is passing directly behind the mountain. With the help of the apps, I knew that at a certain time, the Milky Way would be in the right position and all I needed to do was set up my camera and wait. Where I live, the general direction that the Milky Way core appears is southeast to south.
So we’ve chosen a night to shoot the stars, the forecast is clear, and now it’s time to head out there and give it a shot. Trying to photograph in complete darkness seems a bit ridiculous at first. What I look for is the brightest star or planet in the sky which I will use to accomplish focus. You will be using manual focus during this outing and will want to open your aperture as wide as it can go. Generally, I like to start with settings like f2 or f2.8, ISO 6400, 15sec, then adjust from there. Looking at the back of the LCD screen in live view, I look for the brightest star or planet which many times is Jupiter. It can take some searching and time before you see it as they typically look like little twinkling dots. After I’ve found it, I will use focus magnification to zoom in on Jupiter as close as I can. Rack the focus back and forth until the point of light becomes pinpoint sharp. It will look like a blurry blob then for just a second, be tack sharp before becoming blurry again. It’s at that sharp point that you are in focus. Once focus is acquired, you can go back to your regular composition, no longer magnified. Because it’s so dark, you won’t know if you have a good composition until you take your first image. You will see the adjustments you want to make and go from there. Sometimes it takes me three or four shots before I have the composition I want. As you adjust your ISO, you’ll notice that the higher the number, the brighter the image. You’ll also see that it introduces more noise or grain to the image. It becomes personal preference with your settings as you play around to see what accomplishes the best results. These instructions are for taking single images, but there are various other techniques such as stacking and using a star tracker that are more advanced methods to accomplish a clean end result. I’ll touch on stacking in a future entry.
I remember vividly the first time that the Milky Way core appeared on the back of my camera screen on my first outing shooting the night sky. It was so exciting and my interest was peaked as this whole new world of photography had opened up to me! It is my hope that you are able to take some of this information and use it to begin taking your own images of the night sky. Creating nice images is a bonus, but one thing that photographing the stars does is take you to places that you otherwise might never visit during the night. When you are out there, take a moment to step away from the camera and just look up. When you are under a truly dark sky with no moon present, it’s absolutely amazing how many stars you can see! It’s a humbling experience that you will remember for a long time.
-Chris