The best camera for astrophotography is the one you bring to the darkest sky you can find. In Hanle, that sky does most of the work for you.
What to bring
- A camera with manual mode (most mirrorless / DSLR bodies, and increasingly phones)
- A fast wide lens (14–24mm, f/2.8 or faster is ideal)
- A sturdy tripod — non-negotiable
- A head torch with a red light to protect your night vision
- Spare batteries (the cold drains them fast)
Settings to start with
For a single wide shot of the Milky Way, begin here and adjust:
| Setting | Starting point |
|---|---|
| Mode | Manual |
| Aperture | f/2.8 (or your widest) |
| Shutter | 15–20 seconds |
| ISO | 3200 |
| Focus | Manual, on a bright star |
The "500 rule": divide 500 by your focal length to estimate the longest shutter speed before stars trail. At 20mm, that's about 25 seconds.
Three simple techniques
- Single exposures — the fastest path to a beautiful Milky Way shot.
- Star trails — shoot dozens of frames back to back, then stack them in software for arcs of light.
- Tracked shots — with a small star tracker (we provide them), you can gather faint detail from nebulae and galaxies.
Then process
Half the magic happens afterward. In our workshop we cover gentle editing — lifting the Milky Way, balancing colour, reducing noise — so your images look like the night you remember.
You'll leave Hanle with more than photographs. But the photographs are a good place to start.
