How to take a photo of night sky with stars using Nikon d5100?

Dear friends,

i have a nikon d5100.could you please tell me the camera setting (or) tutorial for taking the photo of night sky using the kit lens (18 to 55 mm)…

1. Use a tripod. You probably already know this but in case you did not, use the tripod.

2. Set your ISO to "automatic". You don't want to use the lowest ISO setting here. You can change it later if you want to.

3. Get as far away from "light pollution" as you can. If your subject is the stars you want to have them and not light reflecting from ground sources off atmospheric haze.

4. Use the self timer! This is a "secret" I use to keep the camera as steady as possible during long exposures. I get very sharp pictures this way with long exposure times.

5. If your camera has "intelligent image stabilization" you don't have to turn off the image stabilization. If it does not you need to go into the menu and turn it off - something I have to do with my Canon G10 or this feature will result in LESS sharp pictures.

Now go try it and experiment to see what results you like the best.

Go to open space and look at stars and sing this song.:

twinkle twinkle little stars, how are wonder what you are…

Paul offers some great tips, but your main problem is getting that particular lens to focus on the stars. There's likely not enough contrast for the autofocus to figure out what's going on. You may have to rely on manual focus, but even then you'll probably have to rely on guesswork. Don't be surprised if you only come out with one good shot out of a hundred. (That would be one more than I managed the one time I tried night sky shots with my 18-55mm.)

In manual focus mode, the camera usually tells you (by way of a green circle in the viewfinder) if it thinks you have properly set focus. Again, it might be too dark to get this aid, since it relies on the autofocus system.

The better lenses have focusing scales that can tell you if the lens is focused on infinity (∞), and wider apertures (f/2.0 or less).