I have had some decent success with the Milky Way this year and while this article is decent, here are a few more tips:
1) Use an app to find where the galactic core will be at what time. This is harder than it sounds because ideally you want to compose an image with something interesting in the foreground (a mountain, rock formation, building, etc). Poor timing, but peak season has already passed this year in the Northern Hemisphere--it's a Summer pursuit. I use Sun Surveyor, but there are lots of apps that do this.
2) Focus is extremely critical and very hard to do after it's dark. I set the focus manually before sunset using a distant object and then use gaffer's tape on my lens so that I don't accidently bump it later. There is nothing worse than coming home to a bunch of slightly blurry stars. Do not trust "infinity" on your lens, it's not accurate!
3) Use the rule of 400 to decide on maximum exposure time. Divide 400 by the length of your lens to get max seconds (e.g. 400/24 = 16.66s for a 24mm lens). Some people use 500, but either way you get a nice ballpark. More time than this and you will get star trails. Neat if that is what you want, awful if you want a nice shot of the Milky Way. This rule assumes a full frame sensor, so if you have a crop sensor remember to adjust (a 24mm lens on Micro Four Thirds would be 48mm for this calc).
A couple of my shots from this year:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJBgSTvg-wO/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGU-1d0uyJN/
1) Use an app to find where the galactic core will be at what time. This is harder than it sounds because ideally you want to compose an image with something interesting in the foreground (a mountain, rock formation, building, etc). Poor timing, but peak season has already passed this year in the Northern Hemisphere--it's a Summer pursuit. I use Sun Surveyor, but there are lots of apps that do this.
2) Focus is extremely critical and very hard to do after it's dark. I set the focus manually before sunset using a distant object and then use gaffer's tape on my lens so that I don't accidently bump it later. There is nothing worse than coming home to a bunch of slightly blurry stars. Do not trust "infinity" on your lens, it's not accurate!
3) Use the rule of 400 to decide on maximum exposure time. Divide 400 by the length of your lens to get max seconds (e.g. 400/24 = 16.66s for a 24mm lens). Some people use 500, but either way you get a nice ballpark. More time than this and you will get star trails. Neat if that is what you want, awful if you want a nice shot of the Milky Way. This rule assumes a full frame sensor, so if you have a crop sensor remember to adjust (a 24mm lens on Micro Four Thirds would be 48mm for this calc).
A couple of my shots from this year:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJBgSTvg-wO/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGU-1d0uyJN/