What time is best for milkyway shots, and how to find the milky way?

[teigas]

I am planning driving up in the mountains on monday or the day after to try to capture some shots of the milky way. I have heard that the best time to do this is when there is a new moon? (no moon). I hope it will be clear skyes.

The shots i am thinking about are somthing like this, found it in a quick google search:
http://www.loripalminteri.com/wp-con..._July_2010.jpg

I think i now how to shoot it. I have the Nikon D800 - and plan to use the Nikon 14-24 f2.8, tripod, and remote trigger. I have read you have to start at f2.8 around 30 sek shutter speed not over, and iso 3200 - 6400.

What i am worried most about is when in the night is the best time for this?
The sun in Norway sets around 21.30, will around 24.00 be dark enough? Or should i wait even longer? Will it be visble true the whole night? Or is it more like the sun and moon, that is rises or sets? (i am not astronome) so sorry for the stupid questions)

The second thing i worrie about is how to find it, i have read than in the northern hemisfer it shoul be in a south direction? I have an app called skywalk, but i am not sure if it will work in the mountains with no cell phone reception.

Since the earth rotates will the milky way be in different directions during the day and night time? I am planning driving up tomorrow in day time just to check and see if i find a location that would work.

Hope some of you have some tips

[csa mt]

The MilkyWay is a fairly faint target in most areas. To be able to really observe it, you must let your eyes adapt to the darkness. This can take 20-30 minutes in the darkness. Only use a red light if you must need light! Since I'm not in Norway, I have no idea when it will be dark enough for you to see it.

"I have heard that the best time to do this is when there is a new moon? (no moon). " The moon as it increases in size also increases in brightness, and any "light" will affect your vision of seeing the MilkyWay.

Here is a link that might be of assistance to you. http://nightskyinfocus.com/astrophot...pturemilkyway/

[teigas]

In Norway the sun sets around 21.30 at the monent. So since i guess the mily way rises and sets in a way just like the sun and moon? I guess there is a time thats better than other? So i am trying to find out if i must make the drive around midnight or much later ? I plan to drive far away from light pollution.

[flashback]

teigas,

I did a very quick search for 'viewing the milky way in norway'
this might be helpful Milky Way photography - how? and possibly this http://www.lonelyspeck.com/the-milky...om-brandasund/
good luck

[lukaswerth]

Google "stellarium" and download the program: it gives a represenatation of the nightsky at any location and time, there is even a slider for optical pollution - and also for the moon. This will show you which time is good for the milky way.

Lukas

[HaseebM]

One of the brightest and orangish star in the Southern region is Antares. Locate that and you will locate Milky Way. Simply point towards Antares with the star towards bottom right of your viewfinder and shoot away. I took this from a highly light polluted city with millions of lights around at just 5 x 15 secs ISO 1600 17mm.



And this one at 40mm, 1 x 15 secs of Milky way with Rho Opiucchi molecular cloud discernible.

[DennisS]

You may want to check out this smartphone app - Photo Pills ($10.00). I have used it to scope out Full Moons, Sunsets and now they have a Milky Way feature too. It is a well designed app:

http://www.photopills.com/blog/photo...er-was-so-easy

[teigas]

Thank you for all your tips, i think it went well for my first try. This is the result: http://www.teigen.be/blogg/?p=8486

[ajohnw]

Those are pretty good.

I would suggest the best time to shoot astro objects such as the Milky Way is the same as when the best results are obtained visually with a telescope and that is when there is no moon.

Locating it should be fairly easy but I have never really thought about it in other countries but in the UK the easiest part to see is more or less directly above and it sweeps across the entire sky and will get more and more difficult to see as it gets nearer the horizon.

No visual signs of it at all where I am in B'ham uk it's 2nd largest city but the skies do not have to be all that dark to at least be able to see it directly above.

If people can find out what the limiting magnitude is in the places they want to shoot it from this might help - from the wiki.

The Milky Way has a relatively low surface brightness. Its visibility can be greatly reduced by background light such as light pollution or stray light from the moon. It is readily visible when the limiting magnitude is +5.1 or better, while showing a great deal of detail at +6.1.[26] This makes the Milky Way difficult to see from any brightly lit urban or suburban location, but very prominent when viewed from a rural area when the moon is below the horizon.

John
-

[Tringa]

I agree with Lukas, download Stellarium. It is free and as already mentioned above it can be set for anywhere on Earth. If you know where you are likely to go in search of the a dark sky you could input that region to Stellarium and be able to see exactly what the sky will look like when you get there.

In the northern hemisphere we don't get good views of the really bright parts of the Milky Way. These are in the general direction of the constellation of Sagittarius which is always low on the southern horizon, even from the UK, and possibly not visible from Norway. I have just had a look on Stellarium set for Oslo and Sagittarius just scrapes the southern horizon.

However, we do get excellent views of the Milky Way in the constellations of Cygnus and Aquila. Both of these are high in the sky at this time of year so easy to see. At present the angle between the Milky Way and the southern horizon quite steep so it makes a interesting arc across the sky and it will almost exactly south west at about 23:00. I think that would be all right for a shot. Even if it is not there may be other interesting things to see as it gets dark.

Hope this helps.

Dave

[teigas]

Thanks for the adivice, we found a dark place, drove for an hour up to around 700 - 800 moh with a glacier arm in the background , sadly it was in a north direction, but anyway the best we could do in a short time to get away from light polution. We got a good view. Her is the result for my first try: http://www.teigen.be/blogg/?p=8486

[Tringa]

You should be happy with those shots, Teigas. Particularly like the one with the hut illuminated and the ones with the meteors. Is the green colour in the some the aurora?

Dave

[teigas]

I was also wondering if it was norhern light (but i tought they should apear in the north), theese are taken in souh - south west direction. I asked in another forum and some suggested somthing called Airglow http://hvadihimlen.dk/lysfaenomener-objekter/airglow/ (its in Danish) but perhaps google transelate kan help you out. (we norwegians understand most of it)

Thanks for the feedback on the pictures Tringa

[William W]

Thank you for all your tips, I think it went well for my first try. This is the result: http://www.teigen.be/blogg/?p=8486

Nice set of images.

You have consistently captured some terrestrial movement, especially at the periphery of the frame; in some images there is more movement blur than in others.

I cannot get the EXIF data of the images therefore it is not apparent to me what Shutter Speed you used for each image - but I do suggest that you use a faster shutter speed.

Shooting from sea level in Norway, I have roughly calculated that you need about 1/20s as the slowest shutter speed to arrest the blur created by terrestrial/earth movements, at this time of the year.

WW