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Photographing the Milkyway/Night sky


Guest arcadiauk

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Guest arcadiauk

Hi

I'm off to Tenerife in May and going to do the "Mount Teide" at night excursion. Has anyone on here done this tour and perhaps taken photographs during their visit?? Will a 30 second exposure be long enough to get a decent picture of the night sky or would I need to have the shutter open for longer? I would like to purchase a new bridge camera to take with me and the two i've looked at, one has a max of 30 seconds and the other has a max of 60 seconds. Any info gratefully received.

Derek

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I`m no astrophotographer but I would of thought the longer the better but saying that, the longer you have the shutter open for, you may also intruduce more stray light then you intend. Also, if you do not have a eq mount/tripod then you may well get star trails at 60 seconds. Again, never done astrophotography so not 100%, sorry.

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I've been to Tenerife loads of times an been up Teide but never at night so I'll be keen to hear how you get on

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Guest arcadiauk

Thank you for replying.

I went to Mt Teide a couple of years ago but didn't get the chance to do a night tour but since then i've been wanting to do it. I've checked on Stellarium for the time we are going (May 8th - for two weeks) and it looks like the moon won't be making an appearance making the night sky hopefully stunning.

I only have an old Sony DSC--S50 camera bought about 10 years ago which is a great camera but unfortunately only has a max of 8 seconds open shutter which is great for capturing the moon through my scope but not good for a good starry night pictures.

I will certainly post some pics on here after my visit, perhaps even during because broadband is freely available to us whilst we're there.

Derek

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You'll get slight trails at 30 secs. A portable system like a Merlin mount would be ideal, then you can do over 30 secs with ease. The search for such a mount is what brought me here. You don't need to be in Tenerife to shoot the milky way, there are plenty of shots taken here, I have seen the milky way from the top of my road. What I'm really saying is get in a little practice now. You'll want to use a large aperture (I use f/3.5-f/4) and fairly high iso - min 800 @30 secs. Or to reduce the trails, iso 1600 for 20 seconds. Most importantly, don't forget your tripod....

Here is a link to a friend of mines gallery;

http://www.flickr.co...res_2009/page2/

Milky way;
/>http://www.flickr.com/photos/northern_exposures_2009/5238150133/in/set-72157614427055836/

Here are some of mine; (click astrophotography on the right....)

http://www.flickr.co...s/maddogharper/

Edited by MADDOGHARPER
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I did the stargazing trip up mount Teide in 2010. The moon was well up, but I did my most exciting Messier search using my 10x50s, in a t-shirt at nearly 20 degrees C ! Despite the moon, the sky was breathtaking, milky way and all.

Can't comment on the photography up there but I know you are going to love the view.

I'm looking forward to the night skies of Lanzarote at Easter, but they won't be up to the standard on Tenerife since Lanzarote is all relatively low down.

Cheers,

Pete.

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