Beginner’s Guide to Stargazing Photography While Traveling
Discover how to photograph the Milky Way and aurora on vacation with our beginner-friendly night sky photography guide. Learn the best times to see the Milky Way, essential camera settings, editing tips, and where to find dark sky locations for truly magical shots.
Capturing the magic of the night sky is one of the most memorable ways to relive your vacation — whether you’re camping in the mountains, staying at a glamping resort, or just enjoying a quiet night on the beach. This beginner’s guide will walk you through how to take stunning stargazing photos with your phone or DSLR camera, and how to choose the perfect dark sky location for your night photography adventure.
Finding the Perfect Dark Sky Location
The best stargazing photos start with finding the darkest skies possible. Here’s how to plan:
Check Dark Sky Maps: Use apps or websites like Light Pollution Map or Dark Site Finder to see areas with the least light pollution.
Visit Dark Sky Parks: Look for certified International Dark Sky Parks and Reserves. In the U.S., places like Glacier National Park, Grand Canyon, and Big Bend are famous for clear, star-filled nights.
Go Rural: Even outside designated parks, rural areas far from city lights can offer excellent conditions.
Check the Moon Phase: Aim for new moon nights when the sky is darkest.
Plan Around Weather: Clear skies make all the difference — check local forecasts before heading out.
Milky Way at The Hohnstead Glamping Cabins
Stargazing Photography with Your Phone
Modern smartphones have come a long way, and you can absolutely get beautiful night sky shots with a few simple tips:
Use Night Mode or Pro Mode: Most newer phones have a night mode or manual (pro) setting. Choose a longer exposure time (8–30 seconds) and keep the ISO as low as possible to reduce noise.
Keep Your Phone Steady: Use a small tripod or even rest your phone on a stable surface like a rock or railing. This is essential for clear, sharp photos.
Manual Focus: If available, set the focus to infinity (∞) to make sure stars are sharp.
Turn Off Flash & HDR: These features won’t help in the dark and can wash out the stars.
Experiment: Try capturing silhouettes of trees, mountains, or cabins to add foreground interest and a sense of place.
Night sky image with Samsung Galaxy S21 at The Hohnstead Glamping Cabins
Stargazing Photography with a DSLR or Mirrorless Camera
If you’re traveling with a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you can unlock even more creative options:
Use a Wide-Angle Lens: Lenses between 14mm–24mm are perfect for capturing expansive night skies.
Set to Manual Mode: Start with settings like ISO 1600–3200, aperture as wide as your lens allows (e.g., f/2.8), and shutter speed between 10–20 seconds.
Use the 500 Rule: Divide 500 by your lens focal length to get the maximum exposure time before stars start to trail. For example, with a 20mm lens: 500 ÷ 20 = 25 seconds.
Manual Focus on Stars: In live view, zoom in on a bright star and adjust focus until it’s sharp.
Shoot RAW: This gives you more flexibility to edit shadows and highlights later.
Night Sky at The Hohnstead Glamping Cabins near Missoula, Montana
Recommended Settings for Stunning Night Sky Photos
While your exact settings may vary based on location and equipment, here’s a solid starting point you can try on your next stargazing night:
Use Manual (M) Mode: Gives you full control over exposure.
Aperture: Set to the widest your lens allows (e.g., f/2.8 or f/3.5) to let in as much light as possible.
ISO: Start with ISO 1600–3200; higher ISO brightens the stars but may add more noise.
Shutter Speed: Try 10–20 seconds. Longer exposures capture more stars, but too long can cause star trails. Use the 500 Rule to help: 500 ÷ focal length (e.g., with a 20mm lens → 500/20 = 25 seconds max).
Focus: Switch to manual focus and set it to infinity (∞). Use live view to zoom in on a bright star and fine-tune until it looks sharp.
White Balance: Start with daylight or auto; you can adjust in editing later.
For smartphone night shots: Use night mode or pro/manual mode if available. Set ISO around 800–1600, exposure time around 8–15 seconds, and keep your phone perfectly steady with a tripod or stable surface.
These settings are just a starting point — experiment a little, review your shots on the spot, and adjust as you go. The magic of night photography comes from playing with the light and discovering what works best under your sky.
Night sky taken from The Blind Cabin at The Hohnstead Glamping Cabins Resort.
“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
What Is the Milky Way & When to See It
The Milky Way is our home galaxy — a swirl of about 100 billion stars stretching across the sky. When most people talk about seeing the Milky Way, they really mean spotting its bright, dusty core in the constellation Sagittarius.
BEST TIME TO SEE THE MILKY WAY
Summer nights (June–August): The Milky Way core is visible most of the night and looks brightest.
Spring (March–May): It rises a few hours before sunrise.
Fall (September–November): Best seen in the early evening before it sets.
Winter (December–February): The core is hidden below the horizon and not visible.
Milky Way at The Hohnstead Glamping Cabins near Missoula, Montana
TIPS FOR BEST VIEWING THE MILKY WAY
Pick dark sky locations, away from city lights, and make sure your southern view is unobstructed.
Go during the new moon for the darkest skies.
Use free apps like Stellarium or The Photographer’s Ephemeris to plan times and directions.
Remember: in the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way stays lower in the southern sky, so head south if you can for an even better view!
Photographing The Milky Way through Aurora Borealis at The Hohnstead Glamping Cabins
Shooting the Night Sky During a Magnetic Storm
One of the most magical surprises you might catch while stargazing is the aurora borealis (Northern Lights). These colorful waves of green, pink, and even purple light dance across the sky during geomagnetic storms, when solar particles collide with Earth’s atmosphere.
WHEN AND WHERE TO SEE THE AURORA
The best chance is during periods of high solar activity (watch for Kp index 5 or higher).
They’re usually visible in northern latitudes (Montana, Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia), but during strong storms, they can be seen much farther south.
Use apps like Aurora Forecast or check NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center to track real-time alerts.
Bringing Your Night Sky Photos to Life: Post-Processing Tips
Even the best stargazing photos often look a bit flat straight out of the camera — and that’s perfectly normal! Editing helps bring out the beauty you saw with your own eyes. Here’s how to get started:
Use Apps or Software: Free and beginner-friendly tools like Snapseed, Lightroom Mobile, or VSCO work great for phones. For DSLR shots, desktop programs like Lightroom or Photoshop offer more control.
Adjust Exposure & Contrast: Boost exposure slightly to brighten stars, then add contrast to make them pop against the dark sky.
Enhance Colors Carefully: Increase vibrance or saturation to bring out subtle blues and purples of the Milky Way, but avoid overdoing it so your photo still looks natural.
Reduce Noise: Night photos often have grain. Use noise reduction tools gently to keep your stars sharp.
Straighten & Crop: Level the horizon and crop creatively to highlight interesting parts of the sky or foreground.
Editing is part of the fun — a creative step that turns a simple snapshot into a frame-worthy memory. And remember: there’s no single “right” way, so play around and see what style you love.
Ready to capture the night sky in comfort? Book a stay at one of our stargazing cabins — The Stargazer, The A-Frame, or The Blind (featured below), where you can watch constellations dance above you right from your pillow. Wake up to forest views, fall asleep under a blanket of stars, and make your next vacation truly unforgettable.
How We Built A Button-Operated A-frame Cabin (Video)
Check out this post and video about how we built our latest remote-operated A-frame Cabin in just 1 month.
Video’s script:
Hello! We’re Alla and Garrett and welcome to the HohnStead Glamping Cabins Resort.
This is our newest cabin called the Stargazer.
Recently we decided to knock down our beloved Shanty Cabin, which was 12 years old and the first thing we built on this property. We did so because of our incredible mountain views and we thought we could do better with this section of our property.
So as you come around the corner, you're going to notice a lot of things if you compare to the Shanty Cabin that have stayed the same. For example, this garden rock wall, the deck, and even the gooseberry plant we tried our best to incorporate into the new build.
I didn't want to work too far backward so we made some modifications after the Shanty’s tear-down. We didn't have to totally backtrack which included building up the platform to match the old Shanty platform.
After we had taken off the composite deck so this portion here used to be part of that 270° walk-around deck, we brought the structure - the Stargazer - all the way back to the corner. We retained this deck, which also included the tree, we didn't want to knock down. So we kept the tree, built a deck around it, and then we came up with a Stargazer.
Initially, much like the A-frame Cabin, it had a wing but the A-frame uses 2x3 lumber and this has 2x4 and it proved to be a little bit too heavy for some people to lift. So I came up with the idea to use a winch from Harbor Freight It was $80.
Since I've already got the solar panel, the charge controller, the 12v battery, the winch made a really easy addition and it's super easy to use and super safe.
This would have been the west-facing part of the deck that took in the Shanty Cabin and if you look here you can see some of the Shanty joists and The Shanty platform actually stuck out here. The original Shanty platform was 8x12 and it went that way and it had a view out front and the door out front. But of course, in typical DIY fashion, we saved a lot of components and one of those components was the door.
So the door is a 180-degree different approach from The Shanty before, but there was a reason because we wanted it to be an approach where you just have a single step up onto it. This creates less of an opportunity for people to fall. We like this 15-in kind of stoop and using the hanging chads from 6 and 1/2 foot composite which makes your eight foot there so it's just tidy and it keeps some of the dirt out in here.
We opted for a queen-sized bed where the A-frame Cabin and the Blind Cabins both have singles that you enter down the center. We intentionally built a low profile bed so that way as you came up, it wouldn't eat up so much space so tall people can easily walk past it.
It is about 12 to 14 by 12 to 14, I can't remember which direction, but a HohnStead feature that we always use is the live edge because my dad's got a sawmill. We got plenty of standing dead timber on the property and it's just funky and cool it's a lot different than the store-bought lumber.
Coleman cook stove for your coffee and tea and two gallons of drinking water in the kitchenette.
An old window from The Shanty has some scratched screens where a bear actually tried to get into The Shanty. So it's kind of a fun story for new guests staying in the Stargazer.
A nice, tidy install of the solar components here. Xantrex charge controller which is actually approaching 20 years. So if this ever goes, I'll take that and I'll just replace it with another one cuz it's been fantastic design-wise.
It was important for us to differentiate the Stargazer from the A-frame and from the Blind Cabins, so we built a 100% wing wall, save for the top portion that has the solar panel on top and sheet metal. But on the other side, we put polycarbonate and that's why we call it the Stargazer so that you can see the stars at night.
Another one of the design components that we thought was kind of clever — with the orientation of the land is when you approach from the behind of the cabin coming in, we have the sheet metal that goes up 8 ft and it didn't require any cuts so it does provide privacy. The polycarbonate is cut in sections of four and polycarbonate comes in eights, so we just cut it in half, and in doing so, this eliminated any waste we might have from that part of the build.
On the back side of the door wall, there are towels, different books, and information about the area.
The door, as seen previously, is the goalie stick (from my hockey hobby) that's cut down. I thought it was kind of cool kind of a cool look.
But I guess the defining feature of the Stargazer that separates it from the A-frame and the Blind, again going back to that heavy door wall, we had to engineer something lighter, safer, and easier. They have winches that are remote-activated this is one of them.
In terms of color choices, I personally wanted the Stargazer Cabin to stand out in photos. I also did not want to use a color that none of our other cabins or the Commons Area has, so we decided to go with red. Red is bright and vibrant when it comes to standing out among the green forest.
So we actually went to Home Depot, looking for color, and they have this wonderful section called “Oops Paint.” It's paint that other people decided not to purchase. So on that fateful day, we had a red oops paint, and the other colors just kind of organically evolved.
We also had white we had gray from other projects, and looking on Pinterest (the way I always do), those colors always look great together. I also liked the idea that Stargazer would be clean and bright and that's where white and gray came in.
When it was all said and done, I didn't really like how everything looked very geometric and linear, so I just freehanded some curvy kind of vines and cute little flowers.
Most importantly, we wanted to have a color scheme that people coming on vacation, don't always have in their homes. When we travel, we want to see places that are unique and extraordinary so we wanted to give them a funky little getaway in the forest, where they would enjoy stargazing and unplugging from real life.
Through a lot of DIY projects, we have learned a lot of different skills and one of the other skills that I have incorporated in this build was making some homemade curtains. I had this really cute cherry material from South Korea, so I decided to create some DIY curtains for the Stargazer.
We wanted a low-profile bed, to allow for extra space to walk around the bed. So instead of buying, we just decided to make our own. We had some extra lumber from The Shanty: the studs, and the 2x6s in the walls while not 8 ft we couldn't use them in a lot of projects, but something like this was super simple. We used OSB on the top and OSB on the bottom and we classed It up by using some cabinet board all the way around. So we're really only out a single sheet of cabinet board which is the expensive part and then a couple of sheets of OSB. We added some supplemental mood light under the bed.
The item that took the most consideration when developing the Stargazer was the rigging system and how it would work with the wing wall. A couple of things we hit snags on was drilling holes with the augur on the tractor. We're in super rocky soil and we already had an existing garden bed around it. We couldn't go over the rock wall with dissecting it and pulling all that stuff out and then you also run the risk of actually hitting your deck with the augur.
Another thing we didn't want is the Aframe with the rope pulley system, which is great for the A-frame, the rigging is out of the way, and the poles are out of the way, but here we would have a pull on the side of the deck and then again back to that garden thing.
We're dealing with a longer cabin, which gets us into custom lumber territory, well past 12 ft so 14, 16 ft. So you have to have a pretty hefty header for that. We also thought about a center pull, which was kind of tough to get the rigging right with the lengths of the ropes and the pulley and just being heavy in general.
Then I thought, you know we're always pulling up logs with the winch and such and those are really powerful. We had the 12v all the infrastructure with the solar panel and the battery, so let's try a winch.
I really like the way that the supports kind of tie back into the building, giving it another kind of triangle look. I use the studs on the inside to brace it up here and here and then brace it up against the building again.
We put the header on top that provided a little bit extra length so we didn't get too blocked there. When the wall is up it gets us about 6'2 - 6'3 so most people can walk underneath of it and it’s still pointing down enough so if you were to leave it up, the rain would fall off the end.
I think what would be a little bit better, though you'd be sacrificing a little bit of safety, is shortening the beam and going in between the braces. I think it'd be a cleaner aesthetic, but we do gain some height by having the header on top and then having the iron and the lag bolts is also safer. So, a minor consideration but I think it looks pretty cool.
Thank you for watching our video we hope to host you right here in Bonner, Montana at The HohnStead Glamping Cabins Resort.
