Photographing stars with basic equipment can be fun. Ideally you should shoot at a dark site a long way from city lights, but even in the city suburbs you can get interesting shots. Of course one of the beauties of digital photography is that trial and error is easy - you can experiment with different exposures and get instant feedback. If you haven’t tried before, you can use the settings below to  get you in the right ballpark -  then just experiment from there.

Since I don’t have a “real” macro lens yet I’ve been making do with the lenses I have for close up photos. For very small insects I’m using an old 50mm Pentax M f1.7 lens - it does a fine job for small subjects that are not easily frightened away , but with a working distance of only a few centimetres from the lens to the subject it is hopeless for skittish insects like butterflies. This is where I’ve found my Samsung Schneider 50-200mm zoom comes in handy. (This is the same lens as the Pentax DA 50-200mm).