I recently moved to Central Illinois from the Chicago area. Central Illinois has much darker skies with less light pollution. I can get to skies this dark in only 30 minutes now, compared to 3 hours. Ever since last year I was looking forward to May to get a chance to shoot the milky way again. May finally got here and after a couple clear nights here are the resulting pictures. The Pentax K-5 might just be the best APS-C camera for astrophotography. Click the images to enlarge and for more info about each shot.

[gifthorse]

Very nice! It looks like getting out of the big city has served you well. Oddly enough, it's 'Have a seat' that jumps out for me. I'm going to have to get out to the Smoke Creek desert and try some monochrome.

[DWitte]

Great shots I've tried a few night sky shots but never got anything this good.

[mrNewt]

Nice photos!!

[nomadkng]

ok so what are dark frames and bias frames?

i'm spending the weekend in the grand canyon and want to try my hand at some astro-photography.

I have PS and I understand the concept of stacking with the blend mode of lighten, but what are dark and bias frames?

How does the first time ever night sky shooter get decent results since this will be a very rare occurrence and buying specialty software isn't an option?

[Johan Holmgren]

Amazing pictures! Thanks for sharing. The fact that they were taken with "ordinary" equipment combined with skill and experience is really cool. Made me just realise there is yet another field in photography to learn about. PF is just great!

[DeadJohn]

ok so what are dark frames and bias frames?

i'm spending the weekend in the grand canyon and want to try my hand at some astro-photography.

I have PS and I understand the concept of stacking with the blend mode of lighten, but what are dark and bias frames?

How does the first time ever night sky shooter get decent results since this will be a very rare occurrence and buying specialty software isn't an option?

This same question was posted in another thread. I answered at https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/digital-processing-software-printing/2250...ml#post2388719. To summarize, I think a beginner should skip dark and bias frames. 30 second ISO 1600 exposures have easily manageable noise levels.