I’ve always been a bit in awe of those stunning night photographs that show a bright Milky Way above a darkened landscape, and when I acquired my DSLR in 2022, I knew that someday I’d give it a try.
That day came in May of 2022 when I went on an annual camping gathering of old radio guys in central Oregon. Late one clear and starry night, I got out of my tent around midnight or one a.m. and pointed my camera at the North Star and made several exposures. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea how long the exposure should be, what to set the ISO on, or even what lens to use.
Needless to say, my expectations of the images fell flatter than a Kansas cornfield.
So, I kept my eyes open for useful information. It wasn’t long before I ran across two resources that gave me all I needed and more: 5DayDeal.com and Tim Shields’ Photography Academy. Both have tons of photography tips and lessons if you’re willing to pony up a few bucks and even though I have been shooting photos for decades, I figure I can always learn something.
There are four things that should go into grabbing some topnotch Milky Way photos:
Clear skies (duh)
Shoot away from the city lights
Shoot within a couple of days of the New Moon
Set up your camera properly
Let’s break down Number 4: How to set up your camera. It didn’t take long to finesse the information I needed into a cheat sheet:
Focus on a star in the distance to capture a part of the landscape. Focus on a nearer object
Widest angle lens (16mm is the widest I have; you can go much wider)
Focal length: as wide as possible (f 2.8 on the Tokina 16-28mm lens I have)
ISO: start at 3200 (then review on the histogram); up to as much as 6400; set ISO as high as possible, take one quick shot, and check the focus and composition
Exposure Times: 25 – 30 seconds; longer than that leads to streaks on the edges; try 15-20 seconds
The last piece of the puzzle is knowing where to shoot. There’s an app called Photo Pills that lets you determine when to shoot and where to aim. Here’s a screenshot of the planner portion; the line of dots across the center is where the Milky Way will appear above you based on your position and the time of day:
Now, the pieces were falling into place. Nearly a year had gone by since I’d acquired my DSLR, and the annual camping trip to central Oregon was a few weeks away. I check the calendar, and voila! NEW MOON. I knew we’d be away from any city lights as the campground is down in a Deschutes River canyon, so things were lining up. I was camping for three nights, so the odds were good that I’d have at least one night with clear skies, and it turned out to be the first night. Here are two images from that night:
Needless to say, once I was able to review the images back on my desktop computer, I was very pleased. Maybe even impressed. These two images were probably the best. Now, admittedly, there is a fair amount of post-shoot processing to bring out the best parts of the image: darkening the sky a bit, bringing out the starkness of the Milky Way, and more. But it’s all good, and it makes for a good image.
That was May, 2023. As it turned out, the pieces would fall into place less than a month later.
June 2023 at the top of Santiam Pass
I had no plans to shoot Milky Way photos in June; in fact, it had barely crossed my mind. But a few days into June, my friend Jerry asked if I wanted to go over to Bend on the 10th to see Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. How could I turn that down? But I had an issue: our family was having a big birthday party up at Santiam Canyon on the 10th, and it would take some coordination to make it all happen. But we worked it out. Then, it dawned on me that Jerry and I would be driving back across Santiam Pass after midnight. I checked the calendar, and the new moon was June 17th, close enough to give Milky Way shots a try. On the way back, I pulled over into the Hoodoo Ski Bowl upper parking area a little after midnight and spent about twenty minutes snapping Milky Way photos while Jerry relaxed in the car. Again, I came away pleased:
July at Detroit Lake
In July, I targeted the night of the full moon, which was Monday, July 17th. As you may or may not know, I do a two-hour reggae show on KMUZ-FM in Salem every Monday night. I made plans to head up to Detroit in the Santiam Canyon an hour or so after my show ended. ‘Twas a great summer night, and I spent a little over 90 minutes around Detroit Lake and the city of Detroit taking some Milky Way images. Lots of fun, exhilarating, actually, but I suspect if anyone had been with me, they’d have been bored to tears. It’s a tedious process, but if you’re a photographer, it’s fun. At least, I think so! Here’s what I came away with:
August, September, October and November
Aha, I thought! Now I know what I’m doing - at least a little! I targeted the next New Moon in August for an overnight at Big Lake on Santiam Pass.
But Mother Nature had other plans: not only were the skies a bit overcast the night I was at the lake, but a forest fire several miles away filled the air with smoke and haze. I poked my head out of the tent at midnight and didn’t see a single star. As far as the Milky Way photo attempt, the trip was a bust.
In September, I went to Bend, Oregon, on the weekend of the new moon. The real reason I was there was to attend my high school 50th class reunion, but I figured it was worth trying to take some Milky Way photos. I stayed with an old high school friend, and we went out of his place a little after midnight. Again, the attempt was a bust due to the lights of the nearby city and somewhat overcast skies, which rendered any visibility of the Milky Way nearly impossible.
October and November also passed by without me taking any Milky Way pics.
December on the Oregon Coast
Our family spent a week in Waldport in December as kind of a Thanksgiving and Christmas hybrid getaway, and the New Moon just happened to coincide with our trip. And clear weather, which is unusual on the coast in December, was with us for most of the trip. I wasn’t all that pleased with the results, although I’ll share a couple of the images with you. There were some city lights leaking into the scene and a high overcast. But at least the Milky Way came through a little:
Can’t wait to see what I get up to in 2024 with a few midnight excursions into the universe!