u/Narrow-Parsnip9936

I'll be shooting a timelapse with about 900 frames.

Should I take one dark frame and edit all the other images using that dark frame, or how many dark frames should I take?

And can I take them home just by covering the lens cap?

And how should I shoot if I need that dark frame, with or without a long exposure NR?

Or can I just remove noise in Lightroom or other apps?

Or will this remove noise from some of the stars, or how does this work?

Please explain..

Are there other ways to avoid dew formation?

Are there any tips on how to avoid breaking the camera? (dew, high temperature changes and etc.)

What should I do with my camera before sunset and after shooting, when I return to my tent?

How do I "acclimatize" it?

Should I use a lens hood or not?

If it helps, I shoot in the mountains at an altitude of 2600-3000 meters.

I'm planning to shoot astrotimelapse in the mountains at altitudes above 3,000 m.

How do I know when I need a lens warmer and when I don't?

Can you recommend any lens warmers? Or are they all good?

And how do I properly attach them to my lens, for example, to the focus ring or the zoom ring? I have a Sony 18-135mm lens. I'm afraid it might shift focus...

and what about lens hood, should i use it or not

Hey everyone!

I'm turning 16 soon and planning a night trip to the mountains near Almaty, Kazakhstan (altitude 3000m+) during the New Moon on July 14th. I want to capture a clean 4K 60fps Milky Way timelapse using my Sony a6700 and also pull a single stacked image from the final footage.

Here is my planned manual setup for the night:

• Camera: Sony a6700 (APS-C)
• Lens: 18mm (wide open at F/3.5)
• Shutter Speed: 15 seconds (based on the 300 rule for crop sensors)
• ISO: 3200 or 6400
• Shutter Type: Electronic (to save shutter life and avoid micro-shake)
• Intervalometer Settings: ~900 frames, Interval set to 17 seconds (giving the camera ~2 seconds (or should I give only 1 sec?) to write RAW files).

A couple of quick questions:

1. Will a 15-second exposure cause noticeable star trailing on an 18mm lens with a 1.5x Sony crop factor, or should I drop it to 13 seconds?
2. For the twilight-to-night transition, is it safe to use Shutter Priority / Manual with Auto ISO and "AE Tracking Sensitivity" set to LOW? Or is it better to just shoot pure manual once it's fully dark?
3. For creating the stacked image later, is Sequator preferred over DeepSkyStacker when dealing with sharp mountain foregrounds?

I'll be staying up with the camera all night to prevent theft and watch out for lens condensation using a USB lens warmer. Any feedback on this workflow would be awesome. Thanks!