Question to Shooters: How do I take pictures of the night sky properly?
 

I have a Nikon DX80 and I want to take photos of the night sky.

It seems that the only way to actually see lots of stars is to set a long exposure time (of course) AND a high ISO (about 1500) but the problem is too much noise and lack of detail. If I set the ISO low (100) to reduce the noise I end up with an image that is too dark even on long exposures. Am I missing something? Is my lens crap?

There are some decent tutorials on YouTube.

If there's something I want to learn, I hit YT before even venturing to Google.

I use bulb mode, low iso, wireless remote and camera on a tripod.

I'll keep the shutter open from a few seconds to a few minutes (for lightning pics).

But I'm no pro. Just my :2 cents:

It's a little more difficult with digital, to do it right you don't use bulb setting for long periods of time, your camera will heat up too much and start getting hot pixels on your image and it'll turn out crappy. The key with digital is to take several timed photos and merge them together.

Read up on this I found for you.

http://digital-photography-school.co...cking-software

800 asa, T1.4 lens and 30 second exposure.

Noise Reduction on....

That should get you started.

This is just what I was looking for. thank you!