“I’ll take 20 millimeters, please.”

I’m preparing for an upcoming photo project, and as much as I appreciate all my Nikon glass, I need something that’s ultrawide and totally within my budget. I mean, if I had $3,500 to drop on a 58mm f/1.2 Noct lens, I’d do it. But I have this thing called a budget, and I gotta stick to it.

So instead, I opted for a Nikon 20mm f/2.8 lens for my night sky shooting. Yeah, I realize that f/2.8 is about the bare minimum for a decent Milky Way photo, but the tradeoff is that 20mm will give me as much of the sky as possible – and with that, as much of the Milky Way in frame as possible.

This will go on my infrared-modded Nikon Df camera, and I already took a few photos around my neighborhood just to see how well this would work.

And … well … Chuck likes this.

But I need one more test.

Checking the train schedules … yep, it’s running. I’ll need to hurry, though.

Arrived at Dry Creek in Corinth, just in time for the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railroad to chug by. This is just a test of both the infrared color balance AND the 20mm lens.

Okay. I’m satisfied.

This lens will definitely work for my upcoming photo project.

Now all I need is some patience and clear skies. 😀