stars, a meteor and a plane
 

Joe, this is all I got, saw lots of them just never where my camera was pointing. Any idea what I'm doing wrong :confused: Focusing?

Tripod & shutter release
50mm
f/2.5
20 second expoisure
ISO 1250
manual
Exposure comp 0

Much lower ISO 100 or 200 (gets rid of the noise and allows for longer exposure)
Much smaller aperture F8-F11 (Allows for much greater depth of field and alows for longer exposure)
Much longer exposure needed. If you want to see the movement of the earth.

Ok, I'm new to DSLR's. How do I make my Canon T1i take longer than a 30 sec exposure? After cycling through and passing 30 seconds it says bulb? I tried that, but I have to hold the button..?

Thanks Alan input, I will try that tonight. I went with 20-25 second exposure to keep from getting the stars trails, looking for just the metor trail.

Randy,
It's slightly out of focus is the only thing you're doing wrong. At 50mm you should be able to pull down 30 second exposures without trails. If you have a wider lens you'll be able to increase the time without showing trails.
is 2.5 as wide as your lens will go?

Thanks Barry, I have a nifty fifty 1.8 I can try, what do you think, manual focus set to infinity?

That Nifty 50 will do great! Yeah, manual focus, but don't rely on infinity,I found I get my best focus by looking through the viewfinder on the brightest star you can find. I always find critical focus to be slightly before infinity. Open that lens up! :)

Awesome tutorial on shooting still stars. And no, you do not want a large aperture.

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Wow, 2 intresting prospectives. I think I will bring 2 camera and try both suggestions, Thanks guys:)

Alan, can you post some of your work? I'd love to see it. :)

randy, to me it just looks out of focus. yeah, you could tone down the iso a bit, but other than that, it's cool.

here's one of the shots from the stack above. (keep in mind, this was shot in the city)

15sec exp
f3.5
iso 320
18mm

I hope you don't mind, Randy. :)

Not at all, thanks Berry much better. I'm going to go back out tonight and see what I can get.

You're welcome, Randy.


Joe, cool shot of the Pleiades.

isn't that backwards?

Nope...that's correct. F8 gives more depth of field than f2.8, and since F8 lets in less light you'll need to let light in for a longer duration...

i guess i read that wrong or too fast or whatever. i thought he was saying f8 allows more light in. my bad.

Joe,

What are you shooting all your night shots with?

The backs are just so smooth.

I don' t want to speak for Joe, but if you median combine or average when you're stacking it usually gets very buttery like that.

barry's right. on the non-stacked pics, noise removal plugins help.