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SkySafari 5?
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Yes, the comet is still visible and should stay that way for the next 2 weeks
How to watch it:
1) Unless you're in a very dark location, I don't think it will be visible with your naked eyes. Telescope or binoculars may work, but I couldn't see the comet from my small-ass telescope either. In my opinion, your best bet would be to use a DSLR or phone camera(more about that in a minute)
2) First, we need to find the comet. Right now it's visible after about 8pm in the North West direction just above the horizon. In order to find it properly, download any star chart app that shows you the comet. I'm using SkySafari for the time being.
3) Ideally you should use a DSLR to capture the comet. But in case you don't have one, you can try shooting it with your phone camera as long as your phone has a manual/pro mode.
4) Put your phone/camera on a tripod or in an inclined position(hand held shots won't work), go to manual mode and change the following settings:
a) Set the ISO to 1600 or 3200
b) Set the focus to infinity
c) Set the shutter duration to 20s
Take a few shots and zoom in. If the conditions are right and you were pointing the camera in the right area, you should see the comet with its wispy tail.
You can take multiple exposures to stack them but be warned, it literally took me hours to get them stacked since most Stacking software require lots of stars in the sky to work and tend to ignore the comets.
Once it starts dimming, Comet Neowise will only return after 7000 years so unless you can develop an immortality potion or make some horcruxes, I'd say you should try and capture/view it if possible.
If you have any questions or doubts, feel free to ask me and I'll try to help you out as much as possible :)
PS- If anyone knows a better way to specifically stack comets, please help me out too.
http://www.eclipsewise.com/oh/tm2019.html
Edit: you can also see what it will look like from your location with an astronomy app. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simulationcurriculum.skysafari5
Oh, it seems that it's just "SkySafari" - the pro version is SkySafari 6.
Judging by the URL the free version also goes by SkySafari 5 :)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simulationcurriculum.skysafari5
The one I use is called SkySafari. Android link / iOS link
Looks like it costs $3 on iOS, but I'm sure you could find a similar one there that's free.
You can use skysafari and check.
Just enter your city or your coordinates and you can see what direction and time it will be visible for you.
The star in the top right corner is Aldebaran, the eye of the bull.
I've learned most of the constellations I know using Sky Safari (there are two more professional versions of the app but this one is the only free one, though you can find them on sale every once in a while) I've tried other apps but I find this one to be the best one. Also I don't know if it works on iOS
Install one of the many stargazer apps available for your phone e.g. Sky Safari (find equivalent for iPhone). It uses your phone's GPS and the time to figure out and show what you're seeing in the sky. So you can point your phone at the bright star as if you were trying to snap a photo of it and it will tell you what it is. Depending on the accuracy of your GPS + compass it should be pretty obvious, especially if it's Mars.
I am trying to create an app similar to SkySafari or Stellarium for a school project. The app will have celestial objects placed on the screen at their astronomical coordinate. Each object will be represented by a 2d image and will be fixed to the screen based on said coordinates. The user will be able to rotate their device on all 3 axis to reveal and locate objects in the sky. I’m just curious as to what would be the best technical approach for this problem. Would I use augmented reality and anchors to fix the objects at their position? Or use some of the built in sensors such as the gyroscope to achieve the same effect?
I recommend SkySafari.
> How much of a factor is environment? (Bright moon, distant lights, objects in picture etc)
Environmental conditions play a massive roll in astrophotography, everything from the moon, light pollution, clouds, atmospheric haze, temperature, humidity among other things can have a massive impact on your shot. Ideally you want no moon, no clouds, little to no light pollution, cool and dry weather to make the most of your shooting.
A site like this https://www.lightpollutionmap.info will give you a good idea of light pollution around your location and an app/site like Clear Outside is great for checking cloud, weather and other conditions. Photopills is an amazing app to plan shots as is Sky Safari for more constellation info.
When everything lines up along with the right equipment, techniques and post-processing you can produce images like this and this
SkySafari. I have it, and I really like it.
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky looked like from my location. Right is what I got after stacking 3600 frames of the Nebula.
M8, or the Lagoon Nebula is around 4000 light years away from Earth, and is a massive stellar nursery where new stars are born.
People usually take pictures like these with either a star tracker or a motorized equatorial mount. You've most probably seen way better photographs of nebulae and other night sky subjects on Reddit or other social media, but this is my attempt to show you that you DON'T always need high end telescopes, expensive gear or a trip to a dark and remote forest in order to capture the breathtaking beauty of our Cosmos. You can do it right from your rooftop or garden with just a cheap, entry-level DSLR (and admittedly, a fair amount of time). The area from where I took this photo comes under Bortle 7 sky
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without burning your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of text(like this one), I would recommend watching untracked Astrophotography tutorials like Nebula Photos: Lagoon Nebula WITHOUT a Star Tracker or Telescope, Start to Finish instead. I've learned a LOT from Nebula Photos because his videos are extremely comprehensive, helpful and beginner friendly.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional)
EXIF:
200mm, F/4.8, ISO 12800, 1sx3600 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the perfect focus is one of THE most important things in Astrophotography(trust me, the pain of spending hours and hours taking thousands of shots which later turn out of be slightly out of focus is... horrible). I would recommend buying a Bahtinov Mask or rather getting it 3D printed as its fairly cheap. I got mine 3D printed from an online store called A3DXYZ. Cost me just like 200/- Rs(most of it was shipping charges lol)
2) Next, we need to locate the Lagoon Nebula. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I use this but you can use your own favorite.
3) A remote shutter or an intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
4) How to select your exposure length: If you take long duration exposures (let's say) 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. To get sharper stars, either use the rule of 500 (beginner friendly) or the NPF rule (more accurate, but a bit more advanced). Make sure you take a few test shots, zoom in and check the focus and star trailing first before continuing.
5) You DON'T need these many exposures. I only took 3600 because I wanted to expose the nebula for a full hour. If you're just starting out, even 500-600 exposures would be good enough to bring out some details. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
6) Take a few(50-100) bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here.
7) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and average out the data which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot has much higher details and less noise.
8) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Photoshop. A general introductory workflow in Pixinsight here
Please note that this is a simplistic explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please do correct me.
As always, ask me if you guys have any questions :)
SkySafari, Nightshift, Mobile Observatory, Stellarium. There are MANY more, but these will get you started. Good luck!
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky(and particularly the Nebula) looked. Right is what I got after stacking almost 4000 frames of Orion.
Orion Nebula is about 1344 Light Years away from the Earth. A nebula is basically a cloud of gas(mostly Hydrogen) in Space. These gases are the initial building blocks by which new Stars are born. Normally, you'd photograph a subject like this using a motorized tracking mount or at least by going to a darker area. I couldn't afford either of those things(the latter partly due to the current pandemic, mostly because I'm lazy) so I just took all these shots from my roof instead. I know that some other shots you may have seen of M42 are probably way better than this, but the fact that I could even get some details on the Nebula from a Bortle Class 6-7 sky was enough for me.
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a dark forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of texts, I would recommend watching 'Nebula Photos' on YouTube instead. He has a series on Orion Nebula WITHOUT a Star Tracker and I can personally attest that the videos were immensely helpful irrespective of if you're a beginner or an expert.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional), Bahtinov mask (optional)
EXIF:
155mm, F/4.5, ISO 12800, 2sx3895 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the focus right is the single biggest challenge while shooting objects like these. For my earlier attempts, I used to spend a _lot_of time trying to perfect the focus and taking far too many test shots to be sure, but then someone suggested to use a Bahtinov Mask. You can get it online if it's available in your country, but I personally got it 3D printed as it was way cheaper. Trust me, a Bahtinov mask saves you a LOT of time and frustration.
2) Next, we need to locate the Orion Nebula. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
3) Find the constellation Orion and point your camera roughly in between the star Rigel and Orion's Belt. Orion Nebula is visible from the naked eyes from most locations and shouldn't be too hard to find
4) A remote shutter or intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, we use the rule of 500 which is essentially >Shutter duration = 500/(Focal length x your camera's crop factor)
Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Nikon cameras have a crop factor of 1.5, so at the focal length of 155mm, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(155x1.5)= ~2s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. YOU DO NOT NEED 4000 EXPOSURES. I only took so many because I aimed to expose Orion for at least 2 hours. With my settings that comes out to be 3600 exposures. If you're attempting this for the first time, or if you're already in a darker area, 300-500 exposures would be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(senor heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal-to-Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Photoshop.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky(and particularly the Nebula) looked. Right is what I got after stacking almost 4000 frames of Orion.
Orion Nebula is about 1344 Light Years away from the Earth. A nebula is basically a cloud of gas(mostly Hydrogen) in Space. These gases are the initial building blocks by which new Stars are born. Normally, you'd photograph a subject like this using a motorized tracking mount or at least by going to a darker area. I couldn't afford either of those things(the latter partly due to the current pandemic, mostly because I'm lazy) so I just took all these shots from my roof instead. I know that some other shots you may have seen of M42 are probably way better than this, but the fact that I could even get some details on the Nebula from a Bortle Class 6-7 sky was enough for me.
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a dark forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of texts, I would recommend watching 'Nebula Photos' on YouTube instead. He has a series on Orion Nebula WITHOUT a Star Tracker and I can personally attest that the videos were immensely helpful irrespective of if you're a beginner or an expert.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional), Bahtinov mask (optional)
EXIF:
155mm, F/4.5, ISO 12800, 2sx3895 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the focus right is the single biggest challenge while shooting objects like these. For my earlier attempts, I used to spend a _lot_of time trying to perfect the focus and taking far too many test shots to be sure, but then someone suggested to use a Bahtinov Mask. You can get it online if it's available in your country, but I personally got it 3D printed as it was way cheaper. Trust me, a Bahtinov mask saves you a LOT of time and frustration.
2) Next, we need to locate the Orion Nebula. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
3) Find the constellation Orion and point your camera roughly in between the star Rigel and Orion's Belt. Orion Nebula is visible from the naked eyes from most locations and shouldn't be too hard to find
4) A remote shutter or intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, we use the rule of 500 which is essentially >Shutter duration = 500/(Focal length x your camera's crop factor)
Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Nikon cameras have a crop factor of 1.5, so at the focal length of 155mm, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(155x1.5)= ~2s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. YOU DO NOT NEED 4000 EXPOSURES. I only took so many because I aimed to expose Orion for at least 2 hours. With my settings that comes out to be 3600 exposures. If you're attempting this for the first time, or if you're already in a darker area, 300-500 exposures would be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(senor heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal-to-Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Photoshop.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky(and particularly the Nebula) looked. Right is what I got after stacking almost 4000 frames of Orion.
Orion Nebula is about 1344 Light Years away from the Earth. A nebula is basically a cloud of gas(mostly Hydrogen) in Space. These gases are the initial building blocks by which new Stars are born. Normally, you'd photograph a subject like this using a motorized tracking mount or at least by going to a darker area. I couldn't afford either of those things(the latter partly due to the current pandemic, mostly because I'm lazy) so I just took all these shots from my roof instead. I know that some other shots you may have seen of M42 are probably way better than this, but the fact that I could even get some details on the Nebula from a Bortle Class 6-7 sky was enough for me.
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a dark forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of texts, I would recommend watching 'Nebula Photos' on YouTube instead. He has a series on Orion Nebula WITHOUT a Star Tracker and I can personally attest that the videos were immensely helpful irrespective of if you're a beginner or an expert.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional), Bahtinov mask (optional)
EXIF:
155mm, F/4.5, ISO 12800, 2sx3895 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the focus right is the single biggest challenge while shooting objects like these. For my earlier attempts, I used to spend a _lot_of time trying to perfect the focus and taking far too many test shots to be sure, but then someone suggested to use a Bahtinov Mask. You can get it online if it's available in your country, but I personally got it 3D printed as it was way cheaper. Trust me, a Bahtinov mask saves you a LOT of time and frustration.
2) Next, we need to locate the Orion Nebula. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
3) Find the constellation Orion and point your camera roughly in between the star Rigel and Orion's Belt. Orion Nebula is visible from the naked eyes from most locations and shouldn't be too hard to find
4) A remote shutter or intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, we use the rule of 500 which is essentially >Shutter duration = 500/(Focal length x your camera's crop factor)
Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Nikon cameras have a crop factor of 1.5, so at the focal length of 155mm, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(155x1.5)= ~2s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. YOU DO NOT NEED 4000 EXPOSURES. I only took so many because I aimed to expose Orion for at least 2 hours. With my settings that comes out to be 3600 exposures. If you're attempting this for the first time, or if you're already in a darker area, 300-500 exposures would be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(senor heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal-to-Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Photoshop.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky(and particularly the Nebula) looked. Right is what I got after stacking almost 4000 frames of Orion.
Orion Nebula is about 1344 Light Years away from the Earth. A nebula is basically a cloud of gas(mostly Hydrogen) in Space. These gases are the initial building blocks by which new Stars are born. Normally, you'd photograph a subject like this using a motorized tracking mount or at least by going to a darker area. I couldn't afford either of those things(the latter partly due to the current pandemic, mostly because I'm lazy) so I just took all these shots from my roof instead. I know that some other shots you may have seen of M42 are probably way better than this, but the fact that I could even get some details on the Nebula from a Bortle Class 6-7 sky was enough for me.
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a dark forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of texts, I would recommend watching 'Nebula Photos' on YouTube instead. He has a series on Orion Nebula WITHOUT a Star Tracker and I can personally attest that the videos were immensely helpful irrespective of if you're a beginner or an expert.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional), Bahtinov mask (optional)
EXIF:
155mm, F/4.5, ISO 12800, 2sx3895 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the focus right is the single biggest challenge while shooting objects like these. For my earlier attempts, I used to spend a _lot_of time trying to perfect the focus and taking far too many test shots to be sure, but then someone suggested to use a Bahtinov Mask. You can get it online if it's available in your country, but I personally got it 3D printed as it was way cheaper. Trust me, a Bahtinov mask saves you a LOT of time and frustration.
2) Next, we need to locate the Orion Nebula. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
3) Find the constellation Orion and point your camera roughly in between the star Rigel and Orion's Belt. Orion Nebula is visible from the naked eyes from most locations and shouldn't be too hard to find
4) A remote shutter or intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, we use the rule of 500 which is essentially >Shutter duration = 500/(Focal length x your camera's crop factor)
Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Nikon cameras have a crop factor of 1.5, so at the focal length of 155mm, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(155x1.5)= ~2s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. YOU DO NOT NEED 4000 EXPOSURES. I only took so many because I aimed to expose Orion for at least 2 hours. With my settings that comes out to be 3600 exposures. If you're attempting this for the first time, or if you're already in a darker area, 300-500 exposures would be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(senor heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal-to-Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Photoshop.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky(and particularly the Nebula) looked. Right is what I got after stacking almost 4000 frames of Orion.
Orion Nebula is about 1344 Light Years away from the Earth. A nebula is basically a cloud of gas(mostly Hydrogen) in Space. These gases are the initial building blocks by which new Stars are born. Normally, you'd photograph a subject like this using a motorized tracking mount or at least by going to a darker area. I couldn't afford either of those things(the latter partly due to the current pandemic, mostly because I'm lazy) so I just took all these shots from my roof instead. I know that some other shots you may have seen of M42 are probably way better than this, but the fact that I could even get some details on the Nebula from a Bortle Class 6-7 sky was enough for me.
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of kilometers to a dark forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of texts, I would recommend watching 'Nebula Photos' on YouTube instead. He has a series on Orion Nebula WITHOUT a Star Tracker and I can personally attest that the videos were immensely helpful irrespective of if you're a beginner or an expert.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional), Bahtinov mask (optional)
EXIF:
155mm, F/4.5, ISO 12800, 2sx3895 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the focus right is the single biggest challenge while shooting objects like these. For my earlier attempts, I used to spend a _lot_of time trying to perfect the focus and taking far too many test shots to be sure, but then someone suggested to use a Bahtinov Mask. I couldn't find this anywhere online so I got it 3D printed. It was so cheap that the shipping charges were more than the mask itself lol. But trust me, a Bahtinov mask saves you a LOT of time and frustration.
2) Next, we need to locate the Orion Nebula. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
3) Find the constellation Orion and point your camera roughly in between the star Rigel and Orion's Belt. Orion Nebula is visible from the naked eyes from most locations and shouldn't be too hard to find
4) A remote shutter or intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, we use the rule of 500 which is essentially >Shutter duration = 500/(Focal length x your camera's crop factor)
Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Nikon cameras have a crop factor of 1.5, so at the focal length of 155mm, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(155x1.5)= ~2s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. YOU DO NOT NEED 4000 EXPOSURES. I only took so many because I aimed to expose Orion for at least 2 hours. With my settings that comes out to be 3600 exposures. If you're attempting this for the first time, or if you're already in a darker area, 300-500 exposures would be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(senor heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal-to-Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Photoshop.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky(and particularly the Nebula) looked. Right is what I got after stacking almost 4000 frames of Orion.
Orion Nebula is about 1344 Light Years away from the Earth. A nebula is basically a cloud of gas(mostly Hydrogen) in Space. These gases are the initial building blocks by which new Stars are born. Normally, you'd photograph a subject like this using a motorized tracking mount or at least by going to a darker area. I couldn't afford either of those things(the latter partly due to the current pandemic, mostly because I'm lazy) so I just took all these shots from my roof instead. I know that some other shots you may have seen of M42 are probably way better than this, but the fact that I could even get some details on the Nebula from a Bortle Class 6-7 sky was enough for me.
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a dark forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of texts, I would recommend watching 'Nebula Photos' on YouTube instead. He has a series on Orion Nebula WITHOUT a Star Tracker and I can personally attest that the videos were immensely helpful irrespective of if you're a beginner or an expert.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional), Bahtinov mask (optional)
EXIF:
155mm, F/4.5, ISO 12800, 2sx3895 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the focus right is the single biggest challenge while shooting objects like these. For my earlier attempts, I used to spend a _lot_of time trying to perfect the focus and taking far too many test shots to be sure, but then someone suggested to use a Bahtinov Mask. You can get it online if it's available in your country, but I personally got it 3D printed as it was way cheaper. Trust me, a Bahtinov mask saves you a LOT of time and frustration.
2) Next, we need to locate the Orion Nebula. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
3) Find the constellation Orion and point your camera roughly in between the star Rigel and Orion's Belt. Orion Nebula is visible from the naked eyes from most locations and shouldn't be too hard to find
4) A remote shutter or intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, we use the rule of 500 which is essentially >Shutter duration = 500/(Focal length x your camera's crop factor)
Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Nikon cameras have a crop factor of 1.5, so at the focal length of 155mm, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(155x1.5)= ~2s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. YOU DO NOT NEED 4000 EXPOSURES. I only took so many because I aimed to expose Orion for at least 2 hours. With my settings that comes out to be 3600 exposures. If you're attempting this for the first time, or if you're already in a darker area, 300-500 exposures would be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(senor heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal-to-Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Photoshop.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky(and particularly the galaxy) looked. Right is what I got after stacking 3000+ frames of the Galaxy.
Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 Million Light Years away from us. Normally, you'd photograph a subject like this using a motorized tracking mount or at least going to a darker area. I couldn't afford either of those things(the latter due to the current pandemic) so I just took all these shots from my roof instead. I know that some other shots you may have seen of M31 are probably way better than this, but the fact that I could even get Andromeda even from a Bortle Class 6 sky was enough for me.
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of texts, I would recommend watching 'Nebula Photos' on YouTube instead. He has a series on Andromeda without a tracker and it's absolutely the most comprehensive and detailed guide I have ever seen.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional)
EXIF:
155mm, F/4.5, ISO 12800, 2sx3084 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the focus right is the single biggest challenge while shooting dim objects like these, so I spent a considerable time fine tuning the focus to get it as sharp as possible.
2) Next, we need to locate the Andromeda Galaxy. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
3) Point your camera roughly between the constellation Cassiopeia and the star Mirach. M31 should be just a little below Mirach.
4) A remote shutter or intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, we use the rule of 500 which is essentially >Shutter duration = 500/(Focal length x your camera's crop factor)
Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Nikon cameras have a crop factor of 1.5, so at the focal length of 155mm, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(155x1.5)= ~2s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 1000 exposures would be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Lightroom.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky(and particularly the galaxy) looked. Right is what I got after stacking 3000+ frames of the Galaxy.
Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 Million Light Years away from us. Normally, you'd photograph a subject like this using a motorized tracking mount or at least going to a darker area. I couldn't afford either of those things(the latter due to the current pandemic) so I just took all these shots from my roof instead. I know that some other shots you may have seen of M31 are probably way better than this, but the fact that I could even get Andromeda even from a Bortle Class 6 sky was enough for me.
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of texts, I would recommend watching 'Nebula Photos' on YouTube instead. He has a series on Andromeda without a tracker and it's absolutely the most comprehensive and detailed guide I have ever seen.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional)
EXIF:
155mm, F/4.5, ISO 12800, 2sx3084 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the focus right is the single biggest challenge while shooting dim objects like these, so I spent a considerable time fine tuning the focus to get it as sharp as possible.
2) Next, we need to locate the Andromeda Galaxy. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
3) Point your camera roughly between the constellation Cassiopeia and the star Mirach. M31 should be just a little below Mirach.
4) A remote shutter or intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, we use the rule of 500 which is essentially >Shutter duration = 500/(Focal length x your camera's crop factor)
Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Nikon cameras have a crop factor of 1.5, so at the focal length of 155mm, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(155x1.5)= ~2s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 1000 exposures would be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Lightroom.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
Left is a Single exposure straight out of the camera on how the sky(and particularly the galaxy) looked. Right is what I got after stacking 3000+ frames of the Galaxy.
Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 Million Light Years away from us. Normally, you'd photograph a subject like this using a motorized tracking mount or at least going to a darker area. I couldn't afford either of those things(the latter due to the current pandemic) so I just took all these shots from my roof instead. I know that some other shots you may have seen of M31 are probably way better than this, but the fact that I could even get Andromeda even from a Bortle Class 6 sky was enough for me.
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
TIP:
If you don't like to read huge wall of texts, I would recommend watching 'Nebula Photos' on YouTube instead. He has a series on Andromeda without a tracker and it's absolutely the most comprehensive and detailed guide I have ever seen.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto lens, a cheap tripod, a wired remote shutter(optional)
EXIF:
155mm, F/4.5, ISO 12800, 2sx3084 exposures
Process:
1) Getting the focus right is the single biggest challenge while shooting dim objects like these, so I spent a considerable time fine tuning the focus to get it as sharp as possible.
2) Next, we need to locate the Andromeda Galaxy. The best way is to download any star chart app, and use the Augmented Reality feature that most of them have these days. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
3) Point your camera roughly between the constellation Cassiopeia and the star Mirach. M31 should be just a little below Mirach.
4) A remote shutter or intervaloemter is advised to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 15-20s or something, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, we use the rule of 500 which is essentially >Shutter duration = 500/(Focal length x your camera's crop factor)
Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Nikon cameras have a crop factor of 1.5, so at the focal length of 155mm, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(155x1.5)= ~2s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 1000 exposures would be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Pixinsight, and retouched it a bit in Lightroom.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park. The bottom image is taken by merging 150 separate exposures of the Milky Way using a technique called "Stacking". The camera I used in both these shots cost about 19,000 Rupees(~300 USD) and it was released back in 2010. I don't think Nikon even manufactures it anymore.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to demonstrate that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without that trip to the grand canyon or to spend your entire month's salary on that latest full-frame camera.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15sx150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to teach people that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without that trip to the grand canyon or to spend your entire month's salary on the latest full frame camera.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15sx150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to teach people that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15sx150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to teach people that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15sx150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to teach people that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15sx150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to teach people that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15sx150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to teach people that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without spending your entire month's salary on buying that 1 lakh Rupee Full frame camera or without that trip to Himachal that keeps getting postponed again and again
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15sx150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to teach people that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15sx150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to teach people that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15s x 150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Details:
First, please note that the bottom image is a composite, meaning I first focused my camera on only capturing the Milky Way exposures, and then, I took one shot of the ground(and myself) in the foreground and blended them together. The entirety of this image was taken from a nearby park.
My main aim is to show that you don't necessarily need expensive gear or to drive hundreds of kilometers to a darker area(especially in current times) in order to photograph the Milky Way. It can be done right from your own roof with just a normal DSLR and a laptop(and admittedly, time. LOTS of time)
If you like this shot, you can check out my other work on my insta @astronot_yet . I do Astrophotography with a cheap/affordable camera and try to teach people that beautiful night sky shots are possible even without driving hundreds of miles to a forest or to spend your entire month's salary on buying expensive gear.
What is Stacking?
Stacking means taking lots of images of the same subject, align them together and take an average of all the frames. This increases the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of the image and reduces the random noise that creeps up in your photos. Bottom line: You can get really high details by stacking multiple images than using just one image.
Equipment-
Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, a cheap tripod, one remote shutter(if you don't have a remote, you can just put the camera on a 2s timer. This is just to make sure the camera stops vibrating after you've pressed the shutter button)
EXIF:
18mm, F/3.5, ISO 3200, 15sx150 exposures
Process:
1) First you need to locate the Milky Way. The best way is to download any star chart app, and find the constellation Sagittarius. I used this but you can use your own favorite.
2)Point your camera roughly on Sagittarius. As long as Sagittarius is in your frame, Milky Way will be as well.
3)Use the widest available lens you have. I took my shots with just a kit lens that came with the camera at 18mm. This is to get as much of the galaxy in our frame and also to avoid star trails(I'll talk about that in a minute)
4)A remote shutter or intervaloemter is recommended to avoid touching the camera again and again and minimize blurriness/disturbance. You can buy a cheap wired remote, or if your camera is fairly new it may already have an intervaloemeter built in. If neither of these are possible, just put your camera in a 2s delay timer and you'll essentially achieve the same result.
5) How to select your exposure length: If you set your camera's shutter duration for let's say 30s or higher, what you will see are star trails where instead of pin pointed stars, you'd see them moving in a line, ruining our shot. In order to get sharp looking stars, use the rule of 500 which is essentially to divide 500 by your focal length(times the crop factor) and set the shutter time as that. Take a shot, zoom in and check the stars, if you see some trailing, lower your shutter length and test again. For my case, Rule of 500 gave me 500/(18x1.5)=~18s, but it was still a bit traily so I shot my exposures at 15s.
6) Take as many exposures as you can. If you're already in a darker area, 50-60 exposures will be good enough. DO NOT change any settings in between the exposures. It's a good idea to not disturb the camera at all while it's taking the shots.
7) Take a few bias, dark and flat frames. These are called "Calibration Frames" and their job is to remove any noise that is being generated by the Camera itself(Heat, dust on the sensor, etc). How to take these here
8) After all this, you can use any stacking software to process these shots. My favorite is Deep Sky Stacker and Sequator. Pixinsight is also a capable one, but it's not free so pick whichever one you like. I would recommend Sequator for beginners since it's simpler. Once you get the hang of stacking, you can try DSS. The main job of stacking software is to align all the exposures and then sort of take an average of the frames which decreases noise and increases the Signal to Noise ratio of our image, so the final shot results in extremely high details and very less noise.
9) I processed the result in Lightroom, then added the foreground in Photoshop
Please note that this is a very simple explanation, and some of the rules and technologies I wrote above might have mistakes, or may not work in your case. Please remember, experiment and experience will give you the best results. Also, if I indeed made some mistakes above, please correct me.
Ask me if you guys have any other questions :)
Older version of SkySafari often go for free on the Google Play Store.