Shooting the Milkyway

[Comet Hunter]

So I would like to try to capture the mikyway with my Olympus PEN E-PLE camera
The only lense I have is the 14-42mm zoom. Will this work or do I need a wider angle lense? And if so, can anyone recommend one that won't break the bank?
Any special filters needed?

Any good training videos you can recommend to get started?

I will be using a equitorial mount so tracking shouldent be a issue. Advice?
Thx in advance.
Ed

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ed,

You will find the Milky Way very easy to capture. Essentially you just want your exposure so that it's 1/3rd on the dark side. If the histogram gets to 50%, you will probably be blowing out the Core.

Here is an Article I wrote on it a few years back, this is in our Article section. https://www.focalworld.com/threads/photographing-the-milky-way.12666/


I was going to ask what aperture your 14-24mm lens is. I am not familiar with Pentax. But if it's a full frame camera, 14mm is what most of us use. If it's a crop sensor, 14mm will be a bit tighter, but still doable.

Since you are using a tracker for the Milky Way (I don't),
You will have lots of flexibility in that you won't have to shoot wide open. With the tracker I would close it down a stop or so to get better corner performance. Set the ISO to say 800, and then just set the shutter speed to make your Histogram be about 1/3 or so from the left. According to my calculations from my normal Milky Way exposure that would get you a shutter speed of 6 mins and 40 secs at f4.

Hope that helps.

 

[Comet Hunter]

Would you at anytime use a broadband filter like the L-Pro to filter out moon or city light polution when shooting the milkway with a dslr?

 

[JimFox]

Would you at anytime use a broadband filter like the L-Pro to filter out moon or city light polution when shooting the milkway with a dslr?

I think you could. That was never an option for me, and still isn't with my setup. But from what I know from using the L-Pro I think it would work well with the Milky Way. As light pollution creeps in more and more, there have been times I wished I had a light pollution filter, so I would say try it, especially since you are tracking. I am not sure how it would affect the WB for the ground layer, so you might want to remove it when you are shooting the ground, or maybe it will simply be a WB adjustment when processing?

Where are you thinking on going and capturing the Milky Way?