The Sky at Night

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Post your photos of the sky at night. It can be a night time landscape or even architecture with the night sky included or just the night sky with celestial objects 🙂

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Here is one from me. In frame are the Pleiades Cluster (centre), the Hyades Cluster (top left) and Alpha Persei Cluster (right) – all open clusters.

Shot with the Fujifilm X-T2 at 18mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 15s.

[Patrick]

Love how you framed it up , nice work 🙂

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Thank you Patrick 🙂

[Robert Apple]

Nice Dahlia, Would you Share your lens and camera data ?

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Hi Robert, thank you.

Shot with the Fujifilm X-T2 at 18mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 15s exposure. Adding the details under the photo too 🙂

[Patrick]

Thank you for the info Dahlia , i need a wider lens i think my widest is just 35mm f2 , two nights ago we had a super clear sky and it looked prefect conditions for night sky photo ops , i don’t think i ever seen as many stars 🙂

[Dahlia Ambrose]

I understand that Patrick. I wished the frame was wider too!

With the 35mm, you can still photograph the night sky, so please give it a try next time 🙂

[Robert Apple]

Ive shot a few with a lens with that spec. with good results Patrick, give it go.

[Patrick]

That is good to hear Robert i must try it thanks 🙂

[Beaky]

Give it a crack mate, F2 is plenty fast enough.

[Beaky]

Nice work Dahlia, and just what I need some inspiration 🙂 I just received my new star adventurer too. Hoping the wind backs off tonight so I can go play.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Wow! Thank you and great to know that Beaky. Look forward to some photos 🙂

[Robert Apple]

An oldie but I got some new ones to go through.

 

OMD EM1 II With Voigtlander Nokton 17.5mm f/0.95 at f/2.8 13 seconds

[Patrick]

Another sweet shot and just like the one Dahlia posted i like the use of the trees to frame it up , we have fairly gusty winds over the weekend and my dark sky area is up in the hills near home but as soon as they ease i will head up and give it a go 🙂

May i ask what white balance is best used

[Robert Apple]

I left it in auto, I rarely use manual setting for WB unless going for a specific effect

[Dahlia Ambrose]

This is brilliant Robert. Love the trees pointing towards the stars 🙂

[Beaky]

Nice shot Rob, I set WB to Sunny, works well for me 🙂

[Patrick]

Thank you Robert 🙂

[David Chesterfield]

Cliche, I know…

 

[Patrick]

I like it David , just curious what the ISO setting was please ?

It is ok i viewed full size and got the details from your page mate thanks anyway 🙂

[JasenkaG]

Cliche or not, this is really great technically speaking!

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Great photo David. Love it a lot 🙂

[Beaky]

Nice shot David.

[David Chesterfield]

iso:2500 (20 second exposure, @7mm focal length, f:2.8)

[Patrick]

Thanking you David , can’t wait to try it now , next couple of days i have wind and rain looks like Tuesday is my first chance 🙂

[Patrick]

Hi guys this was just a very quick test from my yard , the sky was not %100 clear with some very light/thin high clouds and being in my yard a fair amount of light pollution from the street lighting near my house , my question and reasoning to post this was just to ask other than what i mentioned What if anything can i improve here settings wise my my exposure settings – SS 8 sec F2.8 ISO 6400 with 23mm fixed lens on a crop sensor Fujifilm x100v ? Thank you — Ignore the composition or lack of it was just a setting test i also could dial the focus in better when i go for the real thing 🙂

I know it is rough looking but i got to start some place any help is greatly appreciated , maybe open in a new tab for bigger view

[Robert Apple]

With  1.5 crop factor your basically shooting a 35.5 mm equivalent. So using the 500 rule 500 / 35.5  = 14.08 So You should be able to push that lens to around 13 seconds at that iso & f stop with out significant lens trails May be all the way to 14 Patrick, grab some more light and pick up some more details.

Also if you have light pollution embrace it and incorporate it into your composition. If you darken it out you lose stars.

[Patrick]

Thank you Robert , the image did seem very dark , thanks very much mate i will do that , the place i want to shoot from will be much darker and i will spend more time shooting on this shot it was it was very rushed it was freezing cold in my t-shirt but had the erg to try lol

I forgot to ask , i was manual focusing but had my focus peaking assist  ( Red) on should i turn it off for more accuracy

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Good one Patrick. I like Robert’s edit and I agree with Robert’s advice too 🙂

[Beaky]

Hey mate, not sure if you picked up, but I’m sure you’re shooting the constellation Orion….

[Patrick]

That’s right mate , good spot 🙂

[Patrick]

I done some investigating about my camera settings and came across this image , i would be happy with these results .. some practice is in order Sample shot

[beth]

an old one from iceland in 2019.  the 500 rule wasn’t a viable option to capture the faint aurora, so i ended up with star trails.

[Patrick]

I like this Beth a lovely frame 🙂

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Great photo Beth! Looks dreamy and I love the composition 🙂

[Beaky]

Nice work Beth.

 

[Robert Apple]

A Starry night at the very end of Blue Hour.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Awesome Robert. Is that an ISS flyover?

[Robert Apple]

Thanks Dahlia, and That would explain a few things, it was way too slow for a meteorite, and too slow and much to high for a Airplane, and too fast for a sattelite, I hadnt thought of the ISS.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

🙂

[Patrick]

Cool shot mate well done again 🙂

[Robert Apple]

Thanks Patrick.

[David Chesterfield]

The emu – an Austrlian Aboriginal Dreamtime story.

During the Dreaming, a blind man lived with his wife in the bush. Every day he told his wife to go out and hunt for emu eggs for him to eat. Even though his wife tried hard to please her husband, he was always angry with her, telling her that the eggs were too small.

One day while she was out hunting, she came across some very large emu tracks. She thought of her husband and how angry he got, and followed the tracks all the way to the nest. She found a huge emu there and threw stones at it to get at the eggs, but it stood up and ran towards her and killed her.

The blind man became hungry and worried about his wife. He felt around the camp until he came across a bush with some berries on it and ate some of them. Suddenly he could see. He made some spears and a woomera and set off to find his wife. He followed her tracks and finally saw the huge emu and the body of his wife. He speared the emu and banished its spirit to the Milky Way, where it can still be seen today.
— a story from Papunya, Northern Territory

 

[Patrick]

Lovely story with and equally lovely image to go with it , nice frame mate 🙂

[Beaky]

Awesome Dave!

 

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Love the composition David and interesting story 🙂

[Patrick]

Just a quick ask ..

I don’t own a full frame camera and at the same time i would like to do some night sky work using my crop sensor body so wanted to ask would this lens be worth buying

14mm Wide angle

Or would i be better putting the cash towards a Full frame body .. Just worried about excessive image noise on crop sensor photos , i have seen plenty of nice shots using a crop sensor camera body with a bunch of staked shots for the finale photo all using a wide angle lens such as this one i posted ? any help would be appreciated 🙂

 

[Robert Apple]

It looks like a viable lens Patrick, and as far as a crop sensor goes you’ve seen the photos by David and Myself and we’re both shooting with Olympus 4/3 crop sensors which have an even more extreme crop then what your using now.You have a 1.5 crop factor and the 4/3 cameras have a 2.0 crop factor. The folks in some of the Astrophotography sites I watch are mostly using the Fujifilm XF 16mm F1.4 R on your camera body, I would go that route before going full frame. Its a little more pricey then the one you posted but cheaper then a new body and lenses to fit that.

[Patrick]

Hi Robert thanks very much for your help i will look into what you mentioned more , the camera body i would be using it on is my Nikon D7500 .. This image is not mine but was shot with the same camera and using the Tokina 11-16 f 2.8 at a fairly low ISO

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63251024?image=0

Is this good enough do you think , looks like a bit of movement in the stars probably caused by the 20sec exposer time but the image does look clean regarding noise levels ..what you think ? .. this is all very new to me so just fishing for info to help get me going 🙂

[Beaky]

Hi Patrick, the Samyang 14mm is rated as one of the best in it’s range, particularly for the price. I would love the sigma 14mm but don’t have 2 & 1/2 grand. My 24mm does a fine job. I have just bought the Samyang 14mm and the star adventurer, so I am looking forward to giving them both a run when the wind here backs off a little. I use manual focus with live view and zoom in on a bright star, that will get you pin sharp. These are shots from my back yard.

Canon 5Diii Sigma 24mm 30Sec F1.4 ISO1000 WB sunny

20Sec F1.4 ISO800

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Great shots Beaky and wow, that Magellanic cloud.  A little jealous of you guys in the Southern Hemisphere…lol 😀

[Robert Apple]

Nice Shot Beaky. I need to get to know my star tracker but got side tracked by the new lens.

[Beaky]

A night in the desert, Finke, NT.

5Diii Sigma 24mm 13Sec F1.4 ISO200

8Sec

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Great location Beaky to photograph the night sky. The fire looks cosy 🙂

[Patrick]

Hi Beaky thanks very much for your thoughts mate , lovely photos makes me want to try some even more 🙂

[Beaky]

@robertapple @patrickw @dahliaambrose Thank you for the comments, so keen to get out and try the new tracker, got nice clear nights with 25Knt easterly winds 🙁 Here is a couple of older ones not sure if I have posted before or not.

 

[Patrick]

Lovely shot mate , the night sky is amazing  .. i could sit and watch it for hours and just wonder what is out there , thanks for posting Beaky 🙂

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Love it Beaky. Thank you for sharing 🙂

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Galactic center of the Milky Way

Loved looking at the various objects in this heavenly canvas. Labelled with the help of the Sky Guide App

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

Love it @dahliaambrose

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Thank you very much Rob 🙂

[Robert Apple]

Nice Dahlia, I really need to explore this type of photography more

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Thank you Robert. It is addictive 🙂

[Patrick]

First real attempt at this type of photography , i know it is not great but for a first try i am ok with the resulting image considering i don’t really know what i am doing and not using ideal gear shot this on 23mm fixed fuji crop sensor @ 20 sec a few clouds drifted through the scene but they are fairly light .. got to start some place 🙂 

 

If you like watching Docs these two are absolutely superb with the best narration you will ever hear from Andrew Cohen

— Saturn – One Trillion Rings – Oddest Mysteries of the Ringed Planet

Enigmas of the Solar System

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Wow! Love this Patrick. What is the object at the bottom right? Looks like the Andromeda Galaxy!

Thank you for sharing the documentaries. Will check them out 🙂

[Patrick]

Thanks a million Dahlia , i was in Donegal when i got this image i went outside for a quick cig before calling it a day and when i looked up i nearly fell of the wall i was sitting on i was blown away by how many stars i could see and a very faded streak running across the sky which i took was a section of the milky way ,rushed indoors got the camera and tripod and setup this shot , shot for 20 sec and then tried my luck at 30 sec but that image had lots of star movement by this time i was starting to feel the chilly night air so called it a day , The brighter object is indeed a Galaxy but i was not informed enough to say which one but on seeing it i was well and truly chuffed 🙂  For a little fixed 23mm lens on the crop sensor it done well i thought .. ISO 3200 @20 sec and focused to infinity at least i think it was infinity because i had to use the Red light on some distant wind turbine to get my focus sorted.

Hope you get some quite time to watch those Docs they are so informative and just plain brilliant 🙂

[Author]

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