Finally caught a clear shot of the Milky Way from a random field in Ohio

I drove out to this little spot near Hocking Hills last weekend after checking the weather forecast like 10 times. The Bortle scale there is around 4 which is way better than my backyard in Columbus. I set up my old Canon T6i and did a 20 second exposure at f/2.8 and was honestly shocked when I saw the core pop up on the screen. I mean it's not Hubble quality or anything but for my first real attempt at astrophotography I was pretty stoked. Has anyone else had good luck with cheaper cameras for wide field shots? I'm thinking about upgrading but not sure if it's worth the money yet.

2 comments

2 Comments

amyh2123d ago

A buddy of mine tried something similar with an old Nikon D3200 he got for like 80 bucks at a pawn shop. He drove out to a field near a lake in northern Michigan, no real gear just a tripod and a cheap wide lens. Said he got a shot that looked like a smudge on the screen but when he stacked a few exposures together the whole Milky Way showed up clear as day. It made him swear off expensive cameras for a while, said it just takes patience and a dark spot.

terry_barnes23d ago

Sounds like your buddy got lucky with conditions more than anything. Most people out there with a D3200 get a blurry mess no matter how many frames they stack.