My first attempt at astrophotography was during the Arizona trip. I used my 50mm prime lens and my goal was to capture the Big Dipper. Ben helped me with the experimentation, and I was able to get a shot. I was amazed at all the stars that my camera was able to capture that I couldn’t even see with the naked eye. This was just a first step though. I hadn’t looked into what made a good astrophoto before that, but I started looking then. I saw a lot of beautiful images and learned how some of them were made. A lot goes into shooting an astro image; aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focus, and white balance all work very differently when capturing the night sky. What appears in the night sky depends on the time of year and the monthly cycle of the moon. I decided I wanted to try astrophotograpy again, and I wanted to shoot the Milky Way. Luckily one of the best times to shoot the Milky Way is during the summer, so I planned a camping trip for this last weekend (album coming soon) and rented a 24mm prime lens to get a wider shot of the night sky that included some foreground to anchor the composition. Conditions weren’t perfect, but I was still able to get this shot. I can’t wait for my next opportunity to capture the night sky!

Camera settings: f2.8 | 15 sec | 24mm | ISO 2000