Attempted some night sky pics for the first time.
 

http://i64.tinypic.com/11ili0l.jpg

http://i67.tinypic.com/aaw689.jpg

Not sure what that ribbon thing is. We saw it with our bare eyes. It was moving south.

Have another pic of the Orion nebula but tinypic keeps claiming the security code is invalid even though it's what they gave me.

What was your lens and exposure information?

One I took. Same night. I did better with film. Still learning with digital.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600, F6.3 for 3 seconds. Top one was F20 for 3 seconds using a Nikon 300 F4 lense.

That D750 has a wonderful sensor for low light! You'll be able to get some great results with it.

I've been doing a lot of astrophotography the past year or so but most everything has been done with a wide angle f2.8 lens shot wide open, usually at 3200 ISO. With a 14mm lens, you can use shutter speeds approaching 30 seconds before the stars begin to blur noticeably from the Earth's rotation.

Stop me if you know about this but there's a "600 rule" to determine how long your exposure can be for a given focal length before blurring becomes a problem. Just divide your effective focal length into 600 and the result is the number of seconds. With a crop sensor, you have to multiply the focal length by the crop factor before dividing into 600. Of course your D750 is full frame so you don't have that issue.

With your 300 f4.0 lens you should be able to shoot for 2 seconds or so. Crank the ISO way up on your D750. I've seen shots taken at 6400 and even 12,800 with a D750 that look pretty good.

It's common to take several shots and stack them in software to reduce the noise from the higher ISO.

With an f4.0 300mm I'll bet you can get some stunning nebulae shots.

Strongly suggest shooting raw if you have Lightroom or other software to edit. You'll be able to bring out the subtle colors you would never see with JPGs.

:cheers:

Here's a shot of the Milky Way core a few weeks ago taken at a very dark location. I used a cheap 50mm 1.8 kit lens on a Canon 5D MK3. 13 seconds at f1.8 and 3200 ISO. I bumped the exposure about 1/3 stop in post to bring out the details of the core. Notice the stars are just starting to blur a bit.

There were some wispy clouds blowing in and they lit up yellow/orange due to light pollution from nearby towns.

http://i63.tinypic.com/ab6l1l.jpg

I need to learn how to use Lightroom.

Modern digital cameras capture so much detail and all of it is available in the raw file. You'll be amazed how much shadow detail and subtle colors are in the raw files that are completely absent from the jpg.

From an editing standpoint, LR is pretty easy to use... much easier than PS IMO.

My Lightroom 5 will not load NEF files. :banghead:

I live 4 blocks from downtown. :leaving:

:-)

I live between Dallas and Ft. Worth and can count the stars I can see from my back yard on both hands. Had to drive 2.5 hours west of Ft. Worth got get good dark sky.

I use this link to find locations where it's really dark.

DarkSiteFinder.com - Light Pollution Map

Maybe your camera is newer than the 5.0 LR release. Here's a link that may help. Takes an extra step but will be worth it.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1806921

It is. I need 6. :banghead:

Doesn't that link point you to a utility to convert the .nef to .dng? DNG is the native LR format though you can retain the .nef if you have a new enough version. Once in DNG format you can import directly into LR.

I finally broke down and got LR CC, the subscription service. I had 6.0 but they stopped updating it other than for new cameras - no new features. The "photographer's package" from Adobe is $10/month and includes LR and PS and they are both updated frequently. I wasn't using Netflix at all so I cancelled it and moved the $10/mo. to Adobe.:cert:

Yeah. I will download when I want to take the time to mess with it. Been off and on busy today.

Last night.

Very cool shot. I need to invest in a longer lens. A 24-105mm don't get it done for shots of the moon!

That was 500mm. Sigma makes a sweet 150-600 that would suit you.

Yeah, I've had my eye on them and there was a special on them a week or two ago... <$700. I really thought about it but unsure how much I would really use it. Would be cool for super moons and I'd like to do some nature stuff.

I'd really like the Tamron 15-30 2.8 and it makes more sense for the stuff I shoot most.