Taking photos of the stars

Recently I tried my hand at taking photos of the night sky.  The photo isn't perfect as I couldn't manually focus since my viewfinder was pitch black.  Auto focus was a no go as the camera couldn't see anything.

I went into the veld, away from light pollution where I could get a dark clear sky.  I saw plenty of stars but my camera would see more than the naked eye could.

I used a Vanguard Tripod, a Canon 450D camera and 18-55mm lens.   My camera's settings were as follows:

ISO: 1600, the higher the better but my camera could only go so high.  Also the higher you go the more the sky lightens

Shutter speed: 30 seconds.  I forgot my remote else I would have used BULB and set to about 50 seconds

Camera and lens was set to manual

I zoomed my lens in all the way, NOT out.  The 18-55mm lens is also a wide angle lens so more sky was captured.  This was the first time I had a chance to try this.

Further adjustments could have been made but I just wanted to try this out first.....and I had some gluvine to fight the Winter cold.  Uneven ground, darkness and alcohol does not mix well lol.

No special equipment, just an SLR, tripod and cheap lens.  Out of the stars visible in the photo I saw maybe 10, the camera saw the rest.