[SSGGeezer]

I had some luck with a Sigma 70-200 2.8 but for the brightest lower ISO images I was happiest with a manual focus SIgma Mini wide II and a Pentax DA 40XS! Great starter astro lens! With the longer lens I used an astro-tracer but kept the exposures under 20s because of the reduced FOV on the longer lens. I have been waiting for winter weather to stop showing up every day so I can go try some Astro with my KP.
Look at the posts of the most frequent Astrophotography posters like Pete_XL et al, they put up some amazing images.

[aslyfox]

As noted, try taking some pictures with your existing equipment.

. . .

If you are mechanically-inclined, you might try making a “barn door” tracker. The simplest of these would extend your exposure times to 5 minutes or more. Do a search on “barn door tracker astrophotography” to see how to build one. Stick with a simple version for starters!

You will find your shutter remote to be very useful.

Have fun!!

Astrophotography Part 3 of 6: Making a Barn Door Tracker - Articles and Tips | PentaxForums.com

[DeadJohn]

... (stars & Milky Way), but am pretty clueless as to the technique. I have taken photos of the Northern lights in the past & was wondering if the same rules apply? Note that I am able to go to places with minimal light pollution. ...

Use your KP and DA 15mm lens to get started. You'll be able to apply much of what you learned with the Northern Lights for photographing the Milky Way and stars. Don't worry about the astrotracer yet. 15mm is wide enough to allow fairly slow shutter speeds without too much star movement.

Camera mode: Manual, 30 seconds, f4, ISO 3200.

• ISO 800 or 1600 can arguably give you a better result after processing, but are not as good for beginning because you'll see a very dark preview.
• I strongly urge using raw DNG format so you can process later. Use your remote and/or the built-in timer to decrease camera shake
• Disable shake reduction. If you use the timer that will happen automatically.

Focusing: Manual focus, turn on live view, aim at a very bright star or a very distant light, focus until the star is as small as possible. After you get focused be careful about accidentally bumping the lens and moving focus. Do not trust the infinity mark or hard stop because some lenses can focus beyond infinity due to manufacturing tolerances. If taking many photos, periodically zoom in to confirm that focus wasn't bumped of affected by changing nighttime temperatures.

Processing: I do most of my raw processing with Lightroom, but the Pentax DCU software can do it, too. I start processing by increasing the white slider to brighten the stars. I then play with the shadow, black point, and highlight sliders. A *little* bit of extra saturation; too much makes the Milky Way look unnatural. Pentax cameras often do a decent job when left in auto white balance but I also test moving the slider to the 3800K range. A little boost of the clarity slider can accentuate milky way detail. Sharpening and noise reduction come at the end.

Here's a sample of what to expect after processing. It was done with different equipment than you have but is a reasonable expectation after a little practice. In hindsight, I overprocessed this photo, and if I redid it I would back off some of the sliders.

[Ducky13]

Use your KP and DA 15mm lens to get started. You'll be able to apply much of what you learned with the Northern Lights for photographing the Milky Way and stars. Don't worry about the astrotracer yet. 15mm is wide enough to allow fairly slow shutter speeds without too much star movement.

Camera mode: Manual, 30 seconds, f4, ISO 3200.

• ISO 800 or 1600 can arguably give you a better result after processing, but are not as good for beginning because you'll see a very dark preview.
• I strongly urge using raw DNG format so you can process later. Use your remote and/or the built-in timer to decrease camera shake
• Disable shake reduction. If you use the timer that will happen automatically.

Focusing: Manual focus, turn on live view, aim at a very bright star or a very distant light, focus until the star is as small as possible. After you get focused be careful about accidentally bumping the lens and moving focus. Do not trust the infinity mark or hard stop because some lenses can focus beyond infinity due to manufacturing tolerances. If taking many photos, periodically zoom in to confirm that focus wasn't bumped of affected by changing nighttime temperatures.

Processing: I do most of my raw processing with Lightroom, but the Pentax DCU software can do it, too. I start processing by increasing the white slider to brighten the stars. I then play with the shadow, black point, and highlight sliders. A *little* bit of extra saturation; too much makes the Milky Way look unnatural. Pentax cameras often do a decent job when left in auto white balance but I also test moving the slider to the 3800K range. A little boost of the clarity slider can accentuate milky way detail. Sharpening and noise reduction come at the end.

Here's a sample of what to expect after processing. It was done with different equipment than you have but is a reasonable expectation after a little practice. In hindsight, I overprocessed this photo, and if I redid it I would back off some of the sliders.

That's a really helpful post & an absolutely stunning photo. Did you use an astrotracer?

[aslyfox]

this thread is a great example of what I like the best about these forums

members are very willing to help out and share knowledge

this thread will not only assist the OP and myself but will help others who may see it in the future

great job guys

[Ducky13]

this thread is a great example of what I like the best about these forums

members are very willing to help out and share knowledge

this thread will not only assist the OP and myself but will help others who may see it in the future

great job guys

My thoughts exactly.

[MossyRocks]

what is DSO?

Deep Sky Object, or Deep Space object.
Basically things like galaxies, nebulas, star clusters. They do not include the milky way, wide star fields, planets, the sun, or any of the moons in the solar system. With a 50mm you can start to get some DSOs to show up and still have that wider view but they will be pretty small with not much detail but the larger ones you can tell that something is there and you can get some good color out of them if they have it. If you want to try for some I suggest using a sky map like this free one when starting out as it has the biggest and brightest things on it so is a good starting point. If you need to figure out what some of the items are just look them up on wikipedia. Being at the valley floor and shooting up at half dome from a distance may allow you to get a DSO in the frame was well as the top or side of half dome. I have never been there so I don't know how things are oriented but with a sky map plus google maps you could probably figure out if anything would be in the general area and make one of those once in a lifetime photos like Moon and Half Dome.

[aslyfox]

. . . If you want to try for some I suggest using a sky map like this free one when starting out as it has the biggest and brightest things on it so is a good starting point.

free is good

thanks

now I need to do some research, hope for cloudless nights, pack to dress warm

and hope the bears and wolves stay away

[pixelsaurus]

This is an astrophotography group on this forum: Astrophotography - PentaxForums.com

[jlstrawman]

Thanks! I'll have a read through those.

Would still really like to see what kind of photos you could potentially get without an astrotracer & using the equipment I listed above (or similar).

astrophotography photos - Google Search

No doubt many of these required more sophisticated equipment.

[jatrax]

There a number of websites dedicated to astrophotography. Some very technical. Here is one I have found to be both excellent and not too over my head: Lonely Speck - How to Photograph the Milky Way – Astrophotography Tutorials, Tools, Gear + Inspiration

And I just found this smartphone app: PhotoPills | Shoot legendary photos It is $10 on Android. I have tried a number of other apps that do some of the same things but this one is over the top the best I've found. I rarely recommend software or anything else for that matter but this guy did a great job. He really gets what is needed. He also has some good articles and videos.

Here is another: Stellarium Astronomy Software free on laptop but I think $3 on Android. I use it on my laptop. Does much of what the Photo Pills app does but not quite as fancy IMHO.

[DeadJohn]

That's a really helpful post & an absolutely stunning photo. Did you use an astrotracer?

Thanks. No astrotracer used there. If you keep shutter speeds at 30 seconds or less it is unneeded for wide angle at typical viewing sizes.

The astrotracer is most helpful at longer focal lengths, or if you need to print very large. The astrotracer can work magic with a 100mm or 200mm lens.

---------- Post added 04-16-18 at 03:28 PM ----------

free is good

thanks

now I need to do some research, hope for cloudless nights, pack to dress warm

and hope the bears and wolves stay away

Make some noise when you are doing night photography. Bears and wolves are more interested in avoiding you than eating you.

Small poisonous critters are more scary for me. If I drop a lens cap between rocks I am very cautious retrieving it.

[MossyRocks]

There a number of websites dedicated to astrophotography. Some very technical. Here is one I have found to be both excellent and not too over my head: Lonely Speck - How to Photograph the Milky Way – Astrophotography Tutorials, Tools, Gear + Inspiration

And I just found this smartphone app: PhotoPills | Shoot legendary photos It is $10 on Android. I have tried a number of other apps that do some of the same things but this one is over the top the best I've found. I rarely recommend software or anything else for that matter but this guy did a great job. He really gets what is needed. He also has some good articles and videos.

Here is another: Stellarium Astronomy Software free on laptop but I think $3 on Android. I use it on my laptop. Does much of what the Photo Pills app does but not quite as fancy IMHO.

I might have to check those out as I haven't really planned any of my shooting. However if I were going out some place neat like Yellowstone I would plan the hell out of that so that if the opportunity arises I wouldn't miss it. For what I have been doing I have used SkyMap on Android to get myself oriented with the phone, or now that I am getting use to the night sky where I mostly shoot I just stick with the paper sky map. If it would ever quit snowing here I really want to get back up to my lake property with some really nice dark skies where there is an almost dizzying amount of stars.

[jatrax]

I haven't really planned any of my shooting

I am learning that in this niche planning is critical. There is no point driving hours to a dark sky area to shoot the Milky Way if the Milky Way is not visible on that night. I learned the hard way that just driving up into the mountains and expecting to get a great night sky shot is mostly going to fail. Timing, location and sky knowledge are critical. And then you have to still take a good image.

[MossyRocks]

I am learning that in this niche planning is critical. There is no point driving hours to a dark sky area to shoot the Milky Way if the Milky Way is not visible on that night. I learned the hard way that just driving up into the mountains and expecting to get a great night sky shot is mostly going to fail. Timing, location and sky knowledge are critical. And then you have to still take a good image.

With DSOs it is mostly finding them in the sky which can be pretty hard if you don't have a goto mount. The near by dark sky (about 40 miles away on the other side of the county) is probably dark enough where I could get a milky way photo if the weather would cooperate when the moon isn't around but is pretty good for other objects. Where I live a 30 second night exposure at ISO 100 will get you a very orange sky with a few really bright starts and some other dim ones hiding near the noise floor so I have never gotten a Milky Way shot. Since I got a digital camera I haven't been up to my lake property with it (I got a K-2000 in November and then a K-3 in January) but up there I know where to look to see it and what things are in what direction after going up there for 18 years now. So there I wouldn't have to plan anything but just about anywhere else I would.