ISS & Aurora

[Todd H]

During the aurora, I captured the international space station passing through the Big Dipper with the reddish pink aurora. Didn’t think I was able to see the aurora from this far south. I only went outside to capture the ISS. The aurora was a surprise… The additional photo is of the Big Dipper and aurora. The sky conditions were lousy though.

iPhone 15 Pro Max on tripod, night mode 30” exposure. iPhone was equipped with a 2x telephoto lens by ReeFlex.

 

[JimFox]

Very nice Todd! It's always fun when we get surprised like this! Great work on both.

How do you focus the iphone on the stars. I haven't tried it too many times, but my issue was it tried to autofocus for each image and a lot of that would be the focus going in and out as it was seeking. I haven't seen a MF switch.

 

[AlanLichty]

A delightful surprise indeed. Not something I would have expected from an iPhone. You must have had some very dark skies to get a 30 second exposure.

 

[Todd H]

Very nice Todd! It's always fun when we get surprised like this! Great work on both.

How do you focus the iphone on the stars. I haven't tried it too many times, but my issue was it tried to autofocus for each image and a lot of that would be the focus going in and out as it was seeking. I haven't seen a MF switch.

Hi Jim..

what you need to do is point the iPhone to the sky and let it go, don’t touch the screen, the iPhone camera will focus to infinity on its own. Touching the screen activates focus and spot metering and sometimes the exposure gets too dark. I always just aim the iPhone camera where I want it, give it a few seconds and touch the shutter. My iPhone always focuses to infinity without touching the screen. Watch this YouTube video, this guy Shayne is good…

 

[Todd H]

A delightful surprise indeed. Not something I would have expected from an iPhone. You must have had some very dark skies to get a 30 second exposure.

Hello Alan.

actually the area I live in is fairly light polluted. The iPhone in night mode, takes three 10 second exposures and combines them and puts out a 30” exposure and I use ProRaw and edit in Lightroom mobile. The night mode option on the iPhone isn’t a straight 30” exposure, but a stack of several. Watch this video

 

[AlanLichty]

Hello Alan.

actually the area I live in is fairly light polluted. The iPhone in night mode, takes three 10 second exposures and combines them and puts out a 30” exposure and I use ProRaw and edit in Lightroom mobile. The night mode option on the iPhone isn’t a straight 30” exposure, but a stack of several. Watch this video

Interesting video - things to try out and play with. I have a 15 Pro (not the Max) but it does have the night mode controls.

 

[Todd H]

Interesting video - things to try out and play with. I have a 15 Pro (not the Max) but it does have the night mode controls.

Yeah same main 48mp camera. the 15 pro will produce the same results as the pro max. Have fun, hopefully you’ll be impressed with it.

Shayne Mostyn has many other videos on the iPhone regarding night photography on YouTube

 

[JimFox]

Hello Alan.

actually the area I live in is fairly light polluted. The iPhone in night mode, takes three 10 second exposures and combines them and puts out a 30” exposure and I use ProRaw and edit in Lightroom mobile. The night mode option on the iPhone isn’t a straight 30” exposure, but a stack of several. Watch this video

Thanks Todd! I will check that out. It seemed like the phone was having trouble focusing without touching it, but it's been a while, so I probably did touch.