Started by Loiner, 21 Aug 2026. 5 replies, 256 views
Gear in this topic: Canon EOS 250D
Went out in the back garden last night to try for the Milky Way with the 250D and the kit 18-55 at 18mm, f/3.5, 20 seconds, ISO 3200. Result: an orange sky, three stars and a streetlight. I've been looking at the Samyang 14mm 2.8 and the Sigma 16 1.4 (if I can even get that for EF?) and convincing myself that's the problem. Somebody tell me it's the lens. Please.
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It's not the lens. Leeds is probably Bortle 7 or 8, which means skyglow is swamping the faint stuff no matter how fast your glass is. A faster lens just collects more orange, faster. Check a light pollution map and get yourself to Bortle 4 or better; the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors are both dark sky reserves and well within reach of you.
Two other things. The Sigma 16mm f/1.4 is a mirrorless lens, it isn't made for EF, so that one's off the list anyway. And at 18mm f/3.5 on the 250D's pixel pitch the NPF rule gives you roughly 13 seconds for pinpoint stars, so 20 will trail a bit at 100%. Shorter, and stack.
Also be aware it's the tail end of the core season up there. The core is low in the south-west and setting fairly early now, so be out as soon as it's properly dark, ideally on a night with no moon.
rjhowell said:A faster lens just collects more orange, faster.
This is going on a T-shirt. Fine, it's the sky. Dales it is.
Upper Wharfedale on a clear moonless night will do it, an hour or so from you. Take a flask. The kit lens will be fine once the sky's dark... most beginner astro problems are solved with a car, honestly. Cheers
Wide and slow is fine if you stack. Shoot 20 frames at 13 seconds and stack them in Siril or Sequator and the noise drops right off. Kit lens, free software, cheap thrills.
Why did the astronomer's marriage fail? Too much space.
Update: Dales on Saturday, kit lens, 15 frames at 13s stacked in Siril. Actual Milky Way! Faint, but it's there. Also a sheep wandered through frame 9. Stood in a field at midnight for two hours freezing, in August, and I'd do it again tomorrow. Turns out the problem was never the lens. Cheers all