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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