Q2 settings to capture stars

[AlexMartin]

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Hi everyone, I recently purchased a Q2. I am still learning but curious about what settings to use to capture stars in the night sky. Every time I attempt to capture it, it comes out bright and nothing like the night sky. I'm assuming it has something to do with iso and exposure but can't seem to figure it out on my own. Can someone share settings with me?

Edited February 9, 2023 by AlexMartin

[darylgo]

If you want the stars to look like point sources, there's a 500 rule, some use 300.  Divide the focal length into 500 or 300 for the longest shutter opening.  Expose for 10-20 seconds, longer shutter times will give a sense of motion to the stars.  My starting point is iso 6400, 30 seconds, f2.8 in very dark skies, iso 3200 works well also.  Converting to the time of 10-20 seconds, try iso 6400, 15 seconds, f2.8.   

[dpitt]

I read this rule is better for high resolution digital age:

NPF Rule

[Nimar]

Sounds silly but it also needs to be actually dark. If you are somewhere with lots of light pollution your sky might not be dark enough. 

[Cattoo]

Check out http://lonelyspeck.com.  You’ll find tutorials and tips for astrophotography.

You might also check out the PhotoPills app.

I’ll offer one tip though: focus first, then set your exposure.  You probably won’t be able to see much in the viewfinder when you take the photo, especially if you’re taking a 10-30 second exposure. I usually will jack the iso up when focusing, then lower it while accordingly increasing the exposure time to take the actual shot. 

[BrettWayne]

On 2/9/2023 at 11:03 AM, AlexMartin said:

Hi everyone, I recently purchased a Q2. I am still learning but curious about what settings to use to capture stars in the night sky. Every time I attempt to capture it, it comes out bright and nothing like the night sky. I'm assuming it has something to do with iso and exposure but can't seem to figure it out on my own. Can someone share settings with me?

There’s a whole number of variables in astrophotography in general. But here’s a couple absolutely must suggestions I’ll make to maybe get you on a path to success: 

1. Get a free app called “Clear Outside” (iOS & Android). This will allow you to figure out the light pollution index for your location (Bortle Scale). The scale ranges 1-9. As an example I live in Tokyo - it is a 9 which is absolutely the worse. You can still do Astrophotography here but it’s challenging and requires a lot of stacking as well as guiding. I would suggest getting to an area at most a 5 on the index. It will also show you many things such as the phase of the moon and weather conditions so that you can find the right place & time to get decent imagery.

For starters —No moon, crisp cold air, no clouds. Low Bortle. —
 

https://clearoutside.com/forecast/50.7/-3.52

 

2. Get a Light Pollution Filter. This will improve things immensely in urban areas (which is basically everywhere these days). I highly recommend an Astronomik CLS 50mm with a 49-50mm step ring at a minimum. The 77mm is a better investment though because you can adapt it to other cameras. Astronomik Is fairly top tier stuff in amateur Astronomy by the way. Generally speaking, the Chinese stuff is junk. Hoya & Kenko make some good Astro LPR but it’s more expensive than Astronomik usually and less effective. 
 

https://www.astronomik.com/en/filter-gegen-lichtverschmtzung-filters-against-lightpollution-lpr/astronomik-cls-filter.html

3. A graduated ND is helpful to block foregrounds in the bottom of the frame for nightscapes. 
 

There’s a lot more but you’ll pick it up with experimentation! 

[tombre]

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There are some frustrating limitations for the Q2 when shooting the night sky as you cannot do long exposures at high ISO.  With the Q2 I would suggest:

1) Don’t shoot with an aperture faster than f2.8 on the Q2 as the stars take on a distorted pear shape at say f1.8.  It’s a well known type of lens aberration.

2) If you want to blend foreground and background images at different focus distances, shoot the foreground before the blue hour as otherwise you’ll run into the next problem.

3). Overall if you want pin point stars (no elongation due to star movement) limit your shutter speed to 4 sec.  You can push it to 8 sec but you will see a little bit of a star trail forming.  Unfortunately the Leica Q2 has limitations on shutter speeds at high ISO.  It won’t impact your images of the stars, but you cannot take long exposures of the foreground at high ISO (see math photographer video on YouTube for a full explanation).

4) Set manual exposure (say f2.8 and 4 sec) and then increase the ISO until you get a good balance of dark sky and visible stars.  These are the recommended speed settings in Photopils for a 28mm lens.  The longer the focal length of your lens, the shorter the exposure time must be to avoid star trails.

5) Pick a night close to the new moon, or start before the moon rises, or after it sets as the amount of light cast by a full moon will impact the contrast significantly.

6) Blue hour is probably most interesting in terms of sky colour, but you will need to be well away from light pollution.  Check apps like Photopils or TPE for sunset, moon set, blue hour etc times.

[Alan Friedman]

Or perhaps point the camera at Polaris and enjoy shooting star trails. 

[Aram Langhans]

2 hours ago, Alan Friedman said:

Or perhaps point the camera at Polaris and enjoy shooting star trails. 

But the Q2 will  not allow for long exposures to do this, so it would involve numerous shorter time photos and then stacking them.  Perhaps not something or a beginner.