Astrophotography question – How do you photograph the Milky Way?
The single most important thing you’ll need to photograph the Milky Way is a DARK SKY. Consult a star chart to make sure that the band of the Milky Way is above the horizon and visible. The Summer Milky Way from Cygnus to Sagittarius is the most “photogenic” although you could still try to capture the Winter Milky Way in Orion, Gemini and Auriga. For the easiest images you could start with a digital camera on a fixed tripod. Try the higher ISO speed settings with the aperture fully open for anywhere from 10-30 seconds. No zoom or use wide-angle setting, camera focused to infinity. You should be able to get some *almost* point-like stars with only slight trailing if at all. If your etx has an equatorial mode you could piggyback your camera for longer exposures (at possibly lower ISOs for less noise in the image). But you otherwise don’t need to shoot through the telescope as the Milky Way can encompass the sky and the restricted field of a telescope will only allow specific objects to b
