Going to try my hand at time lapse and long exposure

[Mike D]

Going to have a new moon and looks like clear skies at the lease this weekend. I want to try out the intervolmeter for some time lapse photos of the night sky as well as some long exposure shots.

I am shooting a Nikon D7000 and only have the 18-105 kit lens and a a 50mm 1.8 lens to work with.

I do have a wireless and a wired shutter release for the long exposure shots. I also have a pretty decent tripod as well.

Which lens should I shoot and please recommend some settings.

I also don't mind renting a lens if there are better choices than the ones I have.

[El Viejo]

Long exposure night shots are my favorite kind of photography. I have never used an intervolmeter, but my buddy uses his at HS football games for some pretty neat sequences. I think he just lets the camera decide on exposure for those, not sure. For your lens, I would use whatever looks good in terms of how much scenery you want to take in. Your 50mm will be sharper than the kit lens, but sometimes a wide angle perspective makes for a better photograph, and outweighs the slight difference in lens quality.
For long exposures, this is what I like to do:
Make sure noise reduction is on.
Be sure camera is on a sturdy tripod, with the shutter release (either one).
In manual focus mode, I focus on an interesting foreground (windmill or even an old dead tree) with shutter at ~f8. Expose that long enough to get it recorded (maybe even use a flash to bring it out).
Then change focus to infinity (or even a little shy of infinity) and leave open for 20-30 minutes to capture star trails.
I would use the kit lens at ~18mm (or whatever looks good to you in the viewfinder, depending on the scene).
This is all done with one shutter exposure, not multiple ones.
The main thing is to get out there and try different things. Experiment and see what seems to work best for you, then post the best results here on the GS. Looking forward to seeing the results.

[Henry]

Take a few with your mirror locked and see if there is any improvement.