>>2689153>how far exactly do I need to be from a major city? I live in long island and usually try the north shore. nyc is relatively far (probably something around 30 miles at least) but I have a feeling its still fucking up the sky.by astrophotography standards, 30 miles away is right next to you, and NYC is one of the brightest places in the country, if not the world. Nowhere on long island is going to be far away enough. For a sky decently free of light pollution you're looking at central Pennsylvania, about 250 miles from NYC along I-80. Better would be northern Maine.
darksitefinder.com has a map with light pollution measurements for the whole world, go there and find a place that's at least green, and preferably blue or black, and be willing to drive a long-ass way. You have more leeway with this for landscape than for deep-sky, but the orange sodium-vapor lamps that humans tend to put up wherever they live look ugly anywhere.
If you need a lens (advisable if all you have is a kit zoom) you'll probably want a Samyang. The 12/2 that
>>2689132 mentioned is no help to you (assuming you're the OP, with a Nikon D3100), since it's mirrorless-only, you'd want the 16/2, 14/2.8, or maybe the 24/1.4. Samyang gets recommended a lot because a.) they're cheap, and b.) they correct their lenses for coma. Coma is what makes stars at the edge of the frame stretch out into little bat-wing shapes, and most lensmakers don't bother correcting it, since that's a.) difficult, and b.) isn't very noticeable in a lot of general daytime photography. Be advised that their focus calibration is commonly way off, and you'll need to focus manually (almost certainly in magnified live view or the like) instead of just cranking the focus ring to infinity.
If you want to shoot deep-sky, you'll need star-tracking, and probably a full-on telescope, which opens up whole new money-eating vistas. And you'll still need to travel a few hundred miles to use the stuff.
