I went to this exhibit at the weekend! Some truly awesome pictures (and a handful of runners up that left me wondering how easy it is to do, really)
One of the most interesting comparisons was how some pictures were a single shot, maybe 10-15 second exposure, and others were stacks of 700 or more images with exposures ranging from 60-400 seconds, taken over the course of a month.
It’s surprisingly easy to get a good shot of the Milky Way! I was blown away when I first bought a mirror less camera and stuck it on a cheap tripod. Most of the winning shots are also notable for composition and location. Deep sky shots with detail of galaxies and nebulae (anything zoomed in) require a much more complex and expensive gear, but wide angle is generally somewhat easy to capture if you have good dark skies. Just set up a 30 second exposure with settings as described here: https://kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-photograph-the-milky-way...
One of the most interesting comparisons was how some pictures were a single shot, maybe 10-15 second exposure, and others were stacks of 700 or more images with exposures ranging from 60-400 seconds, taken over the course of a month.