I use a top end RRS ball head as well for this basic setup. Sturdy and stable is the only criteria for a tripod. With this camera and lens all I need is a decent tripod and off we go. Some use a 15mm or 24mm lens for panos but i find that they are too wide and don’t provide good stitching images due to aberrations etc. ![]() I use a 50mm lens as a find i can get great detail of the night sky and the milky way in particular fills the frame, but you do need to take lots of frames and have a good overlap (more on that later). I use a Canon 5dMkIV with a Sigma Art Series 50mm prime lens. I also like to set up my gear sometimes and leave it to run for extended periods of time, hence the battery options and the lens warmers.įor bare minimum pano shooting, you do need a full frame camera and as good a lens as you can afford. Less is always more as they say but I have found that with milky way nightscape panos, and to maximise your chances of getting some good images that can be easily stitched together and look good, you do need some extra gear to make it all work. This app has been spot on for my locations and lets me plan ahead my trips and which nights are going to have the best visibility for milky way and star shots. I also use an awesome app called Scope Nights which tells me in advance with amazing accuracy the night sky conditions and cloud coverage. I then go to the AR mode when on site to exactly map where the Milky Way and Galactic Centre will be and this determines where I set up the camera etc. I use the Planner - Galactic Center tab the most to get an overview visual of where I am setting up and the path of the Milky Way and also the important times that it is above the horizon etc. Lots of great instruction on how to use PhotoPills, it looks a little daunting on first entry, but once you find the bits that are useful and important for night sky captures, it’s a great tool to use.Įasy to follow tutorial here on the main aspects of the tool. I use the awesome app Photopills to work out where the Milky Way will be in the sky, its path through the night, and where I need to be set up in order to capture the full arc panorama of the Milky Way (if that is what you are after). Work something out because being cold and lonely out there with no comforts can be tough! I am very lucky to have access to an awesome dark sky location about 3 hours from home, with a comfy friends farm to stay at and use as a base for my night adventures. In order to maximise your chances of getting a pretty good image, you have to do a little bit of planning, which doesn’t really fly with my style but I have learnt some discipline around this after many failed attempts of trying to wing it !Īlways good to have a rough idea of where you want to take the images, and whether you will stay out all night or work out some accomodation or such. Here i detail my workflow and show some of the results that can be achieved. ![]() I still prefer to venture out in to the night with a full frame DSLR and wide lens and set about trying to capture the highest quality night sky panoramas I can get - and its a never ending quest. And some of the newer smart phone camera sensors are even allowing for pretty decent results to be captured by just resting your phone on a ledge and setting off a 25sec exposure pointing towards the night sky. Saying that though, lately I have visited two areas of the Southern Hemisphere - Great Barrier Island off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, and Karijini National Park, in the middle of the Pilbara region of Western Australia and both these areas have a bortle night sky rating of 1 to 2 which is the darkest (and hence clearest at new moon) skies that our world can produce, and the milky way and galactic core are visible to the naked eye with amazing clarity, just not the colour range that a digital image can produce.Ĭamera technology and processing jiggery allow for milky way images to be produced like never before. ![]() I say hidden because the images you produce aren’t quite able to be seen with the naked eye, yet there is no denying their magic and wonder even if you are a capture purist. There is nothing quite like capturing the night sky in all its “hidden” glory.
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