Digital Photography School:

One of the most important lessons that astrophotography has taught me is the importance of planning. I’m a huge advocate of planning your photos in advance, no matter what your subject may be. With most genres of photography, you can wing it and still come home with some great photos. With astrophotography, you’re a lot less likely to get lucky if you don’t plan ahead.

There are many factors that come into play when photographing the night sky. You can’t just pick a location and hope for the best. A successful image will depend on sunrise/set, moonrise/set, the phase of the moon, milky way position, galactic center visibility, time of year, and light levels.

If all that feels a bit overwhelming, don’t stress. There are many tools available to help you research and plan your night sky photos.

This is a great point. I’ve gotten lucky with many shots but I’ve never gotten lucky with night shots. They require planning well ahead of time.

Photopills is my favourite app to use for knowing where the sun is going to be and for night shooting. Along with The Photographer’s Ephemeris, they are the best tools to help you plan outdoor photography in natural light, especially landscape and urban scenes.