Suitable astro photography locations near Brisbane?

[Hired Goon]

The skies look to be clear tonight around Brisbane, and the weather is cool, so it seems like a good night for attempting some astro photography. Not that I know anything about astro photography other than "focus to infinity and keep the shutter open" but ya gotta get out there and have a go and see what happens.

So I am looking for locations that are not too far away (I'm on Brisbane northside) and are relatively free enough of light sources that I may get an image of the Milky Way.

I was thinking of taking a shot of one of the Glass House Mountains (Mt Tibrogargan or Mt Coonowrin) looking west ... good foreground and hopefully not too much glow from surrounding lights.

Are these locations suitable, or do I need to go further out?

Any suggestions appreciated.

[tandeejay]

Carefull of the "focus on infinity". I had a go at astro photography with my Sigma, and found that turning the focus ring all the way left the stars out of focus. I turned on live view, and zoomed all the way in, then adjusted the focus ring back until the stars were nice sharp points.

Turns out the Sigma can focus beyond infinity

[Hired Goon]

... well that was a bust.

I went to Mt Tibrogargan last night, to a location just east of the highway, with Mt Tib to the west.

It was kinda dark, and I could see the Milky Way, which was sadly to the south. So I was not gunna get the mountain and the Milky Way in the same shot from that location.

I had a Nikon D750 camera with a Nikkor 24-85 f3.4 - 4.5 lens, and a Sigma 35 f1.4 lens, and my tripod. Set the camera to manual focus and with mirror up. Had a 5 second delay because I don't have a remote trigger.

Took a shot using the 24-85 at f/3.5, IS100 for 30 seconds ... got blackness. Grrr. Took a shot using the 35mm at f/1.4 at ISO 800 for 30 seconds ... got some light, but also some star trails. Had to switch to ISO1600 and 20 seconds to remove star trails. Or maybe there was movement of the camera? I dunno.

Focusing was an issue as well. Looking through the viewfinder I could not see much light, so I could not adjust focus. Looking through live view ... nothing. So I had to set the lens to infinity, take a shot, review and adjust. But still could not get it right. Grrr.

I'm assuming that my technique was wrong, and that someone skilled in the art could have managed much better results.


edit: some images in this thread.

[tandeejay]

go out in your backyard to practice focusing on the stars.

I found I could only see the stars in the live view if I zoomed the live view, also if the focus was significantly out, I couldn't see any stars.

and if when you zoom the live view, you happen to zoom on a bit of the sky that is empty, you don't see anything to focus either

[Hired Goon]

Added some images in this thread.