We hope you’ve enjoyed Night Week. To wrap things up, we have some advice on how to snap a photo of the evening skies — not from an influencer, but from Mig Ponce, president of the Las Vegas Astronomical Society, who spoke with us on how to view shooting stars from the land of light-pollution, Las Vegas.
📱 Adjust Phone Settings
“Most modern cell phones have the capability to do good low-light photography, and there are definitely some tricks to stack the deck in your favor. You will need to put your phone into night mode.”
🤑 Get the Right Equipment
“Get a small tripod for your phone. They're really inexpensive. It doesn't even have to be the kind that is chest high or eye height. You can get those little ones that are just six-to-eight inches tall. With any exposure more than a few seconds, your hand kind of jiggles, but one of those tripods can hold your phone still and get a decent picture.”
👍 Apply the Applications
“Look for dark sky apps. There's one called AstroCam and another called DeepSkyCamera. Those will help you do low-light, long-exposure images. If you have a Samsung phone, there is an app called Expert RAW that has an astrophotography mode, so that's an option too. (Apple iPhone users may want to try NightCap Camera or AstroShader.) For the most part, even with just a cell phone, if you’re able to put it on night mode and hold it really, really still, you should be able to capture some pretty neat stuff.”
