Sky & Telescope - USA (2019-08)

Imaging Tips

66 AUGUST 2019 • SKY & TELESCOPE

small rechargeable battery pack with USB output,

along with your phone’s charger chord to keep

you running most of the night.

In the Field

Once you’re ready to get out under the stars, you

should keep a few things in mind to get the best

results. First, activate “airplane mode” to reduce

your smartphone’s power consumption. The

camera draws a lot of power, as does the device’s

network connection, particularly if you are out

of range of a cell tower. The fewer activities your

device is performing while shooting, the more

exposures you can take before depleting its battery.

Make sure your device’s Bluetooth is enabled

and pair your trigger device so it can fi re the shutter. Set

your smartphone to record in RAW mode and its camera to

“pro” or “expert” mode, which is often where all the manual

controls reside. This lets you change the shutter speed, ISO,

white balance, and, most importantly, focus to infi nity. With

my Meizu 16th Plus, I often change the exposure in “expert”

mode to 20 seconds, ISO 3200, and focus at infi nity, with a

white balance of 3500K.

This is only a suggestion, as you may need to try different

settings depending on lighting conditions, such as when the

Moon is up or if you are shooting under light pollution.

Targets

Now that you’re ready to shoot, here are some ideas on what

to shoot. Star-trail images are perhaps the easiest entry

point into nightscape photography. Simply set your phone to

shoot a series of exposures lasting 15 minutes or more. You

can then either transfer the images to a desktop

computer and stack the results, or use an app

that does this right in your phone. Some smart-

phones even include this action in their native

camera-control apps!

Keep in mind that star trails appear different

depending on the direction you aim your camera.

Pointing north will produce an image in which

the stars arc around the north celestial pole near

Polaris. Aiming east or west, the stars appear to

move in nearly straight lines.

Another favorite target for nightscape imagers is the

Milky Way. As seen from the Northern Hemisphere, the

central bulge of our home galaxy rises from the east after

midnight in spring and is visible through late autumn.

The best time to capture it is under a moonless sky in

the mid-summer months. Be sure to use a high ISO set-

ting and exposures lasting 20 seconds or more. Adding

a small tracking head to your tripod will permit you to

tNO TOUCHING Avoid touching your device and trail-

ing your exposure when fi ring off exposures by using a

Bluetooth remote shutter release, like the model offered by

Kodak seen here.

NORTHERN LIGHTS Bright aurorae are well within the exposure

range of modern smartphone cameras. The author captured this

display from the arctic coast in Murmansk, Russia.

uREACH FOR THE STARS A fi eld of sunfl owers appears in this 60-sec-

ond exposure captured during a moonlit night in Thailand.

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