Beginner's guide to photographing the Milky Way
Settings, gear, and timing to get your first real shot of the galactic core.
A photograph reveals the Milky Way in colour and detail your eye can't see — and you can get a striking result with a camera you may already own. The trick is dark skies, the right window, and a few exposure fundamentals.
This gets you from nothing to a clean single-frame shot of the galactic core.
What you need
You can start simple. A camera with manual mode and a sturdy way to hold it still are the only non-negotiables.
- A camera with manual (M) mode — a mirrorless, DSLR, or a phone with a pro/night mode
- A tripod, or any stable surface — long exposures need zero shake
- A fast wide lens if you have one (e.g. 14–24mm at f/2.8 or wider)
- A remote or the 2-second self-timer to avoid touching the camera
When and where
The bright galactic core is a seasonal target — best from roughly spring through early autumn, when it climbs above the horizon at night. It's also strongly hemisphere-dependent and far more spectacular from the south.
Darkness is everything. Shoot near new Moon from a Bortle 3 or darker site, away from city glow, and aim toward the core (low in the south from the northern hemisphere).
A starting recipe
Use this as a baseline, then adjust. Shoot in RAW so you have room to bring out detail later.
- Manual mode, manual focus set to the stars (zoom in on a bright star on the live view and focus until it's a tiny point)
- Aperture: as wide as your lens goes (f/2.8 or lower)
- Shutter: 10–20 seconds — longer and stars start to trail
- ISO: start around 3200 and adjust for a balanced, not blown-out, histogram
- White balance: ~4000K, or fix it later in RAW
The 500 rule (avoiding star trails)
Stars move as Earth rotates, so too long an exposure smears them. A rough guide is the '500 rule': divide 500 by your full-frame-equivalent focal length to get the longest exposure in seconds before trailing shows.
At 20mm that's about 25 seconds; at 50mm only about 10. Wider lenses let you gather more light without trails — one reason they're the classic Milky Way choice.
Plan the shot
The best Milky Way images come from being in the right place at the right time: core visible, Moon down, sky clear, and ideally an interesting foreground lit by starlight.
Stella's seeing and transparency forecasts, Moon timing, and dark-sky map line all of that up for you, so you spend the night shooting instead of guessing.
Stop guessing what tonight holds — Stella reads your sky and tells you when to go.
Coming soon —Join launch listUse the guide in the field.
Move from reading to dark-sky places, eclipse plans, and astronomy stays without backing out to the homepage.
Browse parks, reserves, communities, observatories, and planetariums by darkness and region.
Open routeEclipse travelCompare eclipse pathsUse the 2024-2035 catalog to pair path timing with nearby dark-sky stays.
Open routeStargazing staysSleep near the skyExplore observatory hotels, aurora lodges, astrofarms, and dark-sky resorts.
Open routeTonight guideKnow what to look forStart with the practical guide, then use Stella for the exact window where you are.
Open route