Hey guys, So in early June we're off to La Palma (Staying in the south of the Island, but will try to travel all over) La Palma is meant to be a great Dark sky site, so I've been eyeing up the Samyang 14 mm f / 2.8 or the 24mm f / 1.4, (still deciding due to the x1.5 factor with the APS-C) The biggest query is a tripod, I have a old Hama video style tripod, with a plastic head, and the horizontal plane is tilted off with no room to adjust it. (Its a POS) So I've been thinking about a ball head tripod, with a budget of up to £100. I'll be fabricating a nice L bracket and getting hot shoe bubble to set it nice a square. So recommendations people! Also I picked up a Sigma 120-400mm lens at the weekend which with any luck should snap some lovely Luna shots.
Manfrotto do some very nice travel style tripods with ball heads: Manfrotto Compact Action Black Travel Tripod Manfrotto Aluminium Compact Tripod with Ball Head To be honest, with star shots aperture isn't that important. The best way to get good star field photos is to take a series of 20-second exposures and stack them. Long exposures on digital cameras are bad as the amount of noise increases as the sensor warms up - a load of stacked shorter exposure shots will give you better results than a single very long exposure shot. Remember to take some warm clothing as it may get quite nippy out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night (and make sure your hotel will still have someone there to let you back in!)
Cheers, I was going to follow the 500 rule roughly, and aim to stack a fair amount of shots. I shall have a look at those pods.