File:086 Milky way seen in Damaraland Photo by Giles Laurent.jpg

English: Milky way seen in Damaraland, Namibia.

Here is a step by step guide to do astrophotography.

Equipment needed:
1) a tripod (mandatory to avoid camera shake);
2) a good camera;
3) a lens with a low f number such as f/1.4 in order to have as much light as possible reaching the camera sensor.

Weather and environment requirements:
1) new moon phase or moon not up at all because if the moon is illuminated it creates so much light pollution that almost no stars will be visible ;
2) a place with no light pollution (be far away from cities) ;
3) no clouds;
4) be late enough. In the summer in Europe it is preferable to wait after midnight because earlier the sky will still not be dark enough.

Photo execution:
1) place camera on tripod;
2) use manual focus because auto focus will not work. Do a few test shots and then zoom on the picture to verify that the stars are in good focus;
3) use the lowest f number available, like f/1.4;
4) find a good shutter speed of multiple seconds. For this picture a shutter speed of 8 seconds was used. A longer shutter speed would not have been possible for this 24 mm lens on a 50mp sensor or it would have resulted in star trails;
5) use high enough ISO but usually try to avoid going above ISO 6400. For this picture ISO 3200 was used;
6) use a 5 seconds delay for a picture to be taken after clicking on the button to avoid having the hand shaking the camera.

Doing a panorama (optional):
1) do multiple pictures which each new picture having the camera pointing a bit more to the top than the previous one;

2) use the same manual settings for all pictures (mandatory). This includes same f number, same shutter speed, same ISO, same manual focus and especially same manual white balance;
3) use a software (such as Lightroom) to merge them automatically and create a panorama.