Part 2 – What all gears?- Milkyway Photography

If you’re reading this, you must have that intense feeling towards Photography. But everything comes at a cost. We have to be equipped with the right gears at the right time to capture the star lights.
What gear do you need in reality to capture Milkyway? Is Milky Way photography expensive? Let’s find out.

There are three must need gears for any type of night photography.

1. The Camera

To record the light, obviously, first thing you need is a camera. Any camera which can be set into manual mode could capture Milky Way. So it’s not a big deal and you can do it even with your smartphone.
To make professional looking pictures, we need at least DSLR or mirrorless cameras. I wrote more about these on Part 1. It’s good to have a full-frame camera because of it’s high signal to noise ratio in higher ISO values. There are special cameras like Nikon D810A that are dedicated to long exposure deep-sky astrophotography. They have modified long-wavelength filter that passes more of the hydrogen-alpha wavelength at 656.28 nanometers in the deep red portion of the visible spectrum.

2. The lens

The door that is open to the Photons does a typical job in creating the image. We can’t randomly choose a lens to shoot the night sky.
Whatever camera you have, a wide-angle lens should be attached in front to shoot MilkyWay. A lens with a focal length 35mm or less should be used to focus the incoming light into the camera sensor. I will explain this. We are taking pictures of stars from Earth which is spinning at a rate of 460m/sec. Even though stars are moving faster than this, it wouldn’t affect our image that much as the stellar distance is very large and our shooting exposure is comparatively small. To capture all the tiny amount of light coming from space, we need to keep our camera shutter open for a particular amount of time. But the problem is if we do this without precise calculation, the camera records the star’s movement also which will appear as star trails. To avoid this, we use a traditional rule known as 500 rule.
Exposure time = 500/focal length
So if we have a camera of low focal length value, we can maximise the exposure time (time for which camera shutter remains open) without creating any star trails in our photo. This traditional rule fails at times depending on the other conditions. So better reduce 3-5 sec from the actual time you got from the equation.
One more thing that does matter in selecting the lens is its aperture value. We are shooting at night so we need a wider aperture to capture as much as light as possible. Although aperture values around f/1.8 is preferable, we need a minimum of f/2.8 for better results unless you have a Star tracker. I have seen acceptable results from f/4 lens but the conditions of shooting should be favourable and you’d end up in doing a lot of post-processing.

3. Tripod

Stabilizing the whole system is an important thing in Long exposure photography. Shooting long exposures have high risks of shaking the camera gear which would usually end up in blurry output. We need to keep our camera-lens system steady from the time we click the shutter button, till the end of exposure time. So we need a very sturdy tripod that holds the whole weight very well. You’ve to take into consideration the total weight of your Camera-lens system before selecting a tripod. I’d suggest buying brands like Manfrotto, Vanguard, or Benro with at least 5 kilos of holding capacity.

Apparently, with these gears, one could easily capture Milkyway photos. But adding some accessories will definitely create some magic which can be experienced during shooting and in the final image as well. Below are those things which are not necessary but simply good to have.

4. An intervalometer / shutter remote controller

Tripod eliminates most of the shakes but the shutter clicking moment often creates a mild shake. To avoid this you can use an intervalometer. It can be connected to the camera by wire or wirelessly, allowing you to press the shutter button remotely and thereby eliminating shutter clicking shake. It also has options to set exposure values of more than 30 seconds, if you are planning to shoot with a star tracker.

5. Light pollution filters

Light pollution is a major factor which ruins your Milkyway Photography plannings. Even if you decide to shoot on New Moon night, city lights cover the star lights. There are filters to ignore many wavelengths of artificial light. Anyway, I don’t recommend using any piece of glass in front of the lens, unless you are in real need. Get a light pollution map and move away from city lights.

So, is Milkyway photography expensive? I’d say YES, at least for those who are new to Photography and need to buy every gear from the beginning. Better get a camera first, run around and shoot anything and everything you see, then gradually start focusing on your fervor. Trust me, the first time you see the raw image of Milky Way in your camera screen will be one of the best moments you will ever feel in your life.

On the upcoming part, I will cover the best camera settings that can be used to capture the jewels of the night sky. Until then, spend some nights under the moonlight.

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