How can I photograph the Milky Way or a lunar eclipse without a tracking mount?
Asked 2/13/2011
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2 answers
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I want to shoot night-sky subjects like the Milky Way, a lunar eclipse, or earthshine on the Moon, but I don’t have an equatorial tracking mount and would like to keep costs down. What practical options do I have to avoid noticeable star trails and keep noise low? Are DIY tracking mounts such as a barn-door mount worth trying, and are there non-tracking techniques that can still produce good results?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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Are there other techniques or devices that could help?
Another technique is stacking multiple short exposures.
Pick a moonless night away from city lights.
Take many short 20-30 second exposures of the sky.
Use something like Hugin to align them.
Load them into Photoshop (or Gimp) layers and blend them together.
There looks to be a good write up of it here.
There's nothing to say you can't combine this technique for longer exposures as well. You could build a simple "barn door" mount, such as Joanne C recommends below, and then stack several 5-10 minute exposures (since the simple barn mount as has a maximum tracking time of around 10 minutes). Not sure if it'd be worth it, but it wouldn't hurt to try once.
UPDATE: Since posting this, I've begun to use DeepSkyStacker - its a great program designed for this. The UI takes a little getting used to but overall its much easier to use for these kinds of things.
Originally by user1917. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1917
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. Without a tracking mount, the main options are:
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Use short exposures and stack them. Take many 20–30 second frames on a dark, moonless night away from city lights, then align and blend/stack them in software such as Hugin, Photoshop, GIMP, or DeepSkyStacker. Stacking reduces noise while keeping each frame short enough to limit trails.
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Use a wide, fast lens at high ISO. A very short focal length shows less apparent star movement, and a fast aperture lets you gather more light in less time. In practice, you can often keep exposures around 25–30 seconds before trails become obvious, depending on focal length.
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Try a simple DIY tracker. A basic “barn-door” mount is a common low-cost homemade option. It can work, but it requires careful building and use, and simple versions have limited tracking time. You can also combine a DIY tracker with stacking.
For the best results, prioritize dark skies, wide focal lengths, fast lenses, and multiple stacked exposures.
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