I just found out I have an unexpected opportunity to be under very dark skies tonight. I’ve found a cheapish digital camera that I can set the exposure up to 30 seconds that I would buy if it will work. Will that be enough to capture the milky way? If so, any chance of getting Andromeda as well?
I’ve seen some pictures on line that imply the answer is yes, but as I don’t know what I don’t know, I thought I’d get confirmation here.
There’s no way to answer that question without knowing the details of the camera. But if it’s anything like most cheap cameras you won’t get a very good image at long exposure - too much noise.
Sorry - should have thought of that. Sony DSCH300. I do have realistic expectations when it comes to backyard astronomy, so am not anticipating Hubble quality pictures! 
I’ve gone online and found sites that show pictures taken with point-and-shoots, and would be happy with what they have done, but it’s never clear how much enhancement took place after the fact.
Try it and see! A lot about photography is experimenting to see what does and doesn’t work well for you and your equipment. That can be fun, or also frustrating.
Do you have a decent tripod? Without one, you won’t get anything but jiggle.
You can adjust your ISO setting, 80-3200, so try 30sec at 3200, then 30sec at 1600, then 30sec at 800… and so on. The important thing is to keep trying and keep shooting. Once the moment is gone, you’ve lost it.
Is the specs I didn’t see if the lens was a 1.8 or whatnot. Open the aperture fully - lower number (f-stop) is a more open aperture.
A tripod is great, but any sturdy surface works in a pinch. The trick is to trip the shutter without moving the camera. Ideally, use a remote shutter. In the old days you’d use a cable to trip the shutter.
Very good. Sounds like it is a quick solution that’s worth trying. Camera is coming from Costco, so can return it if it is unsatisfactory. No - I don’t have a tripod, but I’ve got a flat surface outdoors right under the Milky Way that I can set it on. I figured I’d set the timer for 2 or 3 seconds, set the camera down, and then take the exposure.
Thank you! I’ll check back in tomorrow and let you know how it went.
The camera has a lot of pixels in a small sensor - which unavoidably means noise. However, if you take a lot of 30 second exposures and combine them you may do remarkably well. There are a number of packages amateur astronomers use do stack images.
The camera doesn’t allow recording in raw mode, so you are at the mercy of the Jpeg processing. i can’t see if you can force the ISO (sensitivity) Letting the camera choose isn’t what you want, you really want to be able to force it to use a low ISO.
In addition to what has been said, at 30 seconds the rotation of the earth will cause slight streaking and make the img blurry. Shorter exposures and photo stacking is better. A free program that does this is Deep Sky Stacker. (I think that’s the name - a search should find it)
Tripod with a clock drive … the Earth will spin and drag the stars across your image.
Thank you for the suggestion for the photostacker. So as a starting point - low ISO, stack shorter images, anything else?
Here I go down the rabbit hole! Just what I need - another hobby! ;
You can play around with the shutter speed as well.
Keep in mind, it’s a bridge camera and is designed to be a Jack of all trades. Using it to capture a night sky will not be playing to its strengths, for that you’d need a decent mirrorless camera and some fast glass, which would be a lot more expensive. I have a Fuji bridge and its sensor is small, the daytime shots in good light at almost all ranges using the huge zoom are great for a point and shoot camera.
If you really want to go nuts you can find a cheap intervilometer to auto take the pictures one after another at whatever duration you set.
Things to consider are if your camera can take it, if it will turn off by itslef, a good tripod that won’t shake, and a computer that can process the stacking.
I’ve done exposures up to a minute or two and never noticed any noticeable streaking. Maybe if you’re taking the pictures with long glass, but with your standard wide angle, I’d be surprised if a 30 second exposure of the night sky shows streaking to anyone except perhaps the most peeping of pixel peepers.
30 seconds with a wide angle won’t cause any appreciable streaking. Digital noise from the small sensor processing to jpeg in camera will likely be noticeable. With DSLRs, shooting in raw and processed including dark frames helps reduce noise.
AF may also be an issue. Infinity focus on some lenses produces less than stellar results for point light sources.
With those possible issues in mind, go for it! I’m curious as to the end result.
Good point about AF. In low lighting, AF can get fooled. Hopefully he (she?) can set focus and then turn AF off.
I am a pixel peepers - I confess 
This was my attempt in my backyard using a canon T1i: five 10 second exposures at 10mm, f3.5, ISO 1600 stacked. I was pretty happy with the result, but real hobbyists get some amazing results.
With my old SLR, if you rotated the lens to the stop, it was at infinity. But I found with my DSLR that doing the same makes the stars out of focus, and that you have to come back a bit to get them into focus.
So, yes, my camera goes to infinity, and beyond!
Very nice work!
