How can a smartphone photograph the Milky Way?
Asked 10/3/2019
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I saw sample Pixel 4 astrophotography images showing the Milky Way and was surprised a phone camera could capture such dim sky detail. How is this possible on a smartphone? Is it mainly computational photography such as stacking and noise reduction, does it require unusually fast optics, and is this something other phones can also do under the right conditions?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
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This article on googleblog goes into details how the Pixel's Night Sight mode works.
Basically, it is using the well-known stacking technique, which Michael C already mentioned, together with some sophisticated algorithms to determine exposure time, number of exposures, and which parts of the images to merge. The article talks about exposures up to 1s on tripods.
Left: Crop from a handheld Night Sight shot of the sky (full resolution image here). There was slight handshake, so Night Sight chose 333ms x 15 frames = 5.0 seconds of capture. Right: Tripod shot (full resolution image here). No handshake was detected, so Night Sight used 1.0 second x 6 frames = 6.0 seconds. The sky is cleaner (less noise), and you can see more stars. (Florian Kainz)
Stacking many images has the advantage of averaging out noise while increasing signal, but adds the problem of aligning images taken some time apart. The camera's software (which ought to be largely independent of the phone hardware) aims to handle this intelligently.
Originally by user32110. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user32110
6y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—this is possible, and it is not purely a Pixel-only first. The main ingredients are:
- Very dark skies: little or no light pollution, no moon, and full darkness are critical.
- A fast wide-angle lens: phone cameras have tiny lenses, but also very short focal lengths, so they can still have wide apertures such as around f/1.8.
- Multiple exposures and stacking: modes like Google’s Night Sight/Astrophotography capture several short frames and merge them. Stacking reduces random noise and reveals faint detail.
- Long total capture time: even if each frame is only a fraction of a second to about a second, combining many frames improves the result.
- Stability: on a tripod, the camera can use longer exposures and produce cleaner images.
A phone does not need an unusually large physical aperture to do this; the real advantage is a combination of fast optics, short focal length, computational processing, and favorable shooting conditions. Wide-angle views also tolerate longer exposures before star trails become obvious. So with the right app/mode, dark skies, and steady support, other smartphones can also capture the Milky Way.
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