Yeah, I’ve done a few Milky‑Way sessions myself. First, I scan the sky for the light‑pollution map—dark sites are usually 30 to 50 mag/arcsec² in the B‑band. If you’re in a place that’s only 40 mag, you’re fine; anything brighter than 35 and you’ll start to see the Milky Way blur into a wash. Next, I set the camera to a large aperture—f/2.8 or lower if you can. The exposure time is a trade‑off: about 15–20 seconds works for most scenes, but you can push to 30 seconds if the sky is very dark and your sensor can handle it without too much noise. I usually use ISO 800–1600; at ISO 800 you get a good balance between sensitivity and noise. To keep stars crisp, I set the focal length to 14–24 mm, which gives a wide enough field to capture the galactic plane but isn’t so wide that stars become streaks. Finally, I bracket the exposures a couple of times and stack them in software; the noise drops dramatically and the faint dust lanes show up. Just remember to check the histogram after each shot—no clipping on the Milky Way’s bright knots and no over‑exposure on the stars. Happy shooting!

A 16 mm on a full‑frame is a good choice; it gives enough width to see a lot of the galactic plane without making the stars smear. At ISO 3200 you’ll start to see the sensor noise become noticeable, especially in the blue channel. If you can tolerate a bit of grain, it’ll let you push the exposure to 20–25 seconds without too much saturation, so you’ll capture more of the faint dust lanes. For a weekend trip, I’d suggest the following dark‑sky spots. The Big Bend National Park in Texas has a rating of about 40 mag/arcsec² and is close to many roadways. In the west, the Mojave National Preserve in California also scores well and offers easy access to the desert. If you can travel a bit farther, the Atacama Desert in Chile provides some of the darkest skies in the world—though that’s a longer haul. For a more local option, the Point Reyes National Seashore in California is relatively light‑polluted but still gives you a decent 38–39 mag/arcsec² if you’re away from the coast. Good luck with the noise test, and keep a log of your exposure settings—sometimes the numbers on paper don’t match the reality on the sky.