Definitely interested in seeing this for Android and DSLR users. But it's a great reminder that if I have my phone with me I can probably get good night sky photos.
As someone (in the Southern Hemisphere) who's made many star trails images by capturing multiple images on his big camera and stacking them on his computer with the StarStax app, I found your video very interesting and informative. I'm particularly impressed that you managed to reveal the stars' colours in your final image. I do have a couple of comments. 1) I think it's important to choose an interesting foreground and light paint it with a soft light source to make your final image a bit more interesting. 2) I think a more interesting time lapse video is one where each image is just the night sky (and not partial trails), so you can see how the stars appear to rotate about the celestial pole. This makes a particularly good video if the Milky Way is included in your field of view. Presumably you need to choose different options, or use a different app, to create this kind of time lapse video.
Thank you very much for this. After watching your video I purchased Nightcap and gave it a go. This makes capturing Star Trails an absolute breeze👍. Will be passing this info on to some of the younger neighbourhood children interested in Astro photography. Cheers
How this channel doesn't have more subscribers is beyond me. This is another excellent tutorial, full of examples and tips, even some alternatives. Well displayed, well narrated, and it's free!! Nico, together with Astro Backyard and AstroBiscuit you guys are the reason I'm diving deeper and deeper into the night sky rabbit hole. Thanks for that!
Bro , away from video, I don't know why but this is the first vid I watched of your channel but I really like your style , accent, outfit, your face feature and smile, I think you are very nice guy. Good bless you and I hope you have a nice life for god ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Wow, what an excellent video for explaining the process in making star trail photos on the iPhone. It is very clear and easy to follow. For me, I think this finally puts all the pieces together. I can't wait to start creating my own star photos! Thank you!
Hey Nico. Love videos like this specifically involving smartphones because pretty much everyone has one. I've even seen people capture bright DSO's like the Orion nebula, You should do more like this!
Had the opportunity to learn this from you at a conference in Illinois and absolutely love this and the other things you brought to us. Love the channel and what you are spreading!
Fantastic Nico and very timely. Hoping to use this with my nephews and nieces over the holidays. Looking forward to a fun family project. Thanks for sharing
Hi Nico. Thanks very much for mentioning my app. I’ve been watching your videos for years so was a nice surprise to see it mentioned! Regarding the video not exporting correctly… this is a bug that seems to have surfaced with one of the later iOS15 versions or possibly iOS16. I have fixed this and it’s currently in TestFlight before release in a week or two. Thanks again!
I downloaded your app a while back to stack from a Nikon Full frame Z6ii, from the photos app, after saving them from the SD card to phone. Yours is the only app that allows that. Thank you for that. I can now stack images and make a time lapse from Mirrorless to iPhone in the field. Now it can all happen on a iPhone as standalone. Awesome!!
@@NebulaPhotos Hi Nico. Just in case you hadn't already seen it, the update was released shortly after this video came out and should address the corrupt video issue. Thanks!
I just updated my iPhone to the 14 and I'm looking forward to trying this. I've always done star trails on my camera, processing in PS, but I'm always looking for additional astro tricks. Thanks so much!
be sure, man, you're gonna get the much more amazing results with your s22, then any other iphone)) And even without additional apps) (may be intervalometer app, if you need to make timelapses in manual)
So nice to know! I know when I'm going home for Xmas there's a new phone under the tree and I'd love to try this at my parents bortle 2 skies! Additionally, as I stay out all night with my gear, it's super nice to have some 'smaller' more easily manageable, and forgiving setups next to your main rig that you can get some really cool pictures with. Thanks Nico!
This is perfect! I've been getting into taking pictures of the stars lately. Found a nice dark area here in SoCal, was going to try a time-lapse video tonight(12-15-22) since we still have the Geminid Meteor Showershower. Honestly best money I'll invest in apps, Thank you so much
The cheap tripod: i had one. Its ok for a tryout. But neither very stable nor you shouldnt expect more that 10 - 50 uses (depending on usage i guess) out of it before it breaks. And the phoneclamp: having a better one like shown (i had a worse one) is recomended.
Just watch this video. I see it's a year old. Could you recommend an app or two on Android to create the star trails? Have The newest Samsung Galaxy S24 ultra.. recently downloaded Samsung's raw imaging editor app. There is an Astro feature but I haven't explored it yet. Thanks for all your awesome videos !
Great video. Interesting tripod head for the cell phone setup. Never seen a setup like this before (with the rod and head). Do you have a link to this head?
I was using this clamp: amzn.to/3Wo5Coh attached directly to the ballhead on my Peak Design Travel Tripod, but I also have had good luck with this very inexpensive smartphone tripod: amzn.to/3Yxs3JN
@@NebulaPhotos Thanks for the reply. But the cell phone holder I get; it's what is holding that cell phone holder i what I was asking about. It looks like it's a specialty head for which the cell phone is connected to. Never seen a ballhead like that. Must be unique to Peak Design.
Good evening. Thank you for the video. I downloaded the app, but on mine, the option to program with infinite exposure does not appear. Do you know if the app has been updated and no longer has this feature? Thank you.
Is there any way to remove the satellites from a photo taken in star trails mode? I just tried my first one and there are like 12 satellites 😕 it kind of ruins the picture! So is my only option to try again in stars mode and then manually stack?
The infinite no longer seems to work while in Stars Mode, was this due to a newer version of the app? Is there a workaround or alternative method (aside the easy version)?
@Nebula Photos I have a question: I have a camera, lens (very wide 24-70mm F2.8), and ball-head tripod, but I want to improve my photos and maybe get a star tracker. I have a budget of $450, what would you do in my situation?
A question, would the star stacker app be good (basic enough) let's say if you are traveling light and you do like a milky way stack, a milky way timelapse or a rho ophiuci lets say then use photoshop for ipad for photo editing? Just trying to see what the limits are.
As far as I can tell it's really just designed for star trails. The two things it doesn't do that would be necessary for normal milky way / deep sky stacking: 1. Star Alignment 2. Median stacking (it only does lighten)
Why won't the app let me use the interval scheduler in conjunction with the "star mode" option? It only allows me to use it with "long exposure" and "light strokes", I don't understand, I leave the same settings as you but at the time of pressing the shutter button it only takes a single picture. I'm frustrated :(
What..? How would stringing them together in iMovie help? Each of the 200-frame videos would restart the trail. Do we also have to retain the last frame of the previous clip and overlay them? And the screen recording of the preview is very extremely much lower resolution than the source, not an acceptable solution. Surely having a maximum photo number must be a bug?
It’s been fixed in that app. The developer saw my video and was able to fix it. I’m not sure what you mean about it not working in iMovie. This is a way I make Timelapses all the time, just drop all the photos in a timeline in a Video editor, and change the duration of all the photos to a small duration. No need to overlay them, when you make the duration small enough it will work like animation, each frame is a picture, but if they go fast enough (at least 15 frames per second, ideally 24 fps) your brain can’t process that
Not exactly, Android version of this tutorial coming soon though! In that one I’ll be using the intervalometer for Timelapse app ($1.99) by the developer Mobile Photon and the Star Trails app (free with ads) by the developer SLASH.
Anybody have software recommendations for making these trail images/videos on a desktop computer, whether Mac, PC, or Linux, if given a series of stills from any source, whether an iPhone or other smartphone or any other camera? I know that there are several options, but I'm wondering which one you all would recommend as the best for making exactly these effects.
@@NebulaPhotos excellent, StarStaX is what I use now, was just wondering if others had a different favorite and if so then what do they like about theirs. :)
I'll be doing android in a separate video in a couple weeks. Since the apps /process is different, I thought it would be too confusing to combine into one video.
well, my results with smartphone astrophotography comes to the conclusion, that iphone totally s*cks in it. Before I moved to the iphone 13pro, I had a huawei p30pro, and it was a beast! And without any additional apps, manual mode is amazing. Pixel makes a good results with it's own astro mode, even the samsung. But iphone s*cks, sorry. Love this phone, but it's not for night skies
Owning both those phones, my conclusion is a bit different. The Huawei P30 Pro has a very good sensor and camera app that with lots of practice I have been able to get good results with if I transfer the photos to my computer. The biggest problem with iPhone for astrophotography is not the sensor, but the hardware limitation that only allows up to 5 second long photos. This is a let down for milky way, but doesn't matter too much for star trails (subject of the video here). The 3rd-party astrophotography apps available for iOS are 100x better than anything I've seen on Android, which are buggy and full of stupid ads and other nonsense. So it's sort of a wash. If you just want the best performance go for a Huawei, Samsung or Sony phone. if you want a very smooth, satisfying experience, nothing beats NightCap Camera app.
@@NebulaPhotos I agree that android apps are mostly terrible, that's why I said you don't even need it on huawei or pixel, just a standart camera app))) The main idea of my comment is that iphone 13pro is amazing phone I love so much (and won't update till 15th), and the same time really bad in night sky photography. After this video i bought NightCap, but the miracle didn't happened)) Much worse then huawei or pixel that creates amazing results with standart camera app. And of course, for the best performance we have to use fullframes))
In the settings under interval timer where you see 3x, tap that icon, a slider will appear under it, move that slider all the way to the right to get to ‘infinity’* *you will of course be limited by the battery/storage or your phone. It just means keep taking photos until you stop it. Cheers, Nico
Hello there … I’ve done that as well , slider is all the way to far right ( infinity ) .. it takes one 10 sec exp then that’s it .. stops .. I’m pretty sure I’m not setting it right but I’ve tried different combo settings … my star trail pic turned out great but I can’t get the “video” to work right
The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/nebulaphotos12221
Would love this but for Android, specially a tutorial for photographing the milky way with an android phone!
IDK man, something about his voice, and the style of this video seems perfect and soothing. Kudos man
Definitely interested in seeing this for Android and DSLR users. But it's a great reminder that if I have my phone with me I can probably get good night sky photos.
As someone (in the Southern Hemisphere) who's made many star trails images by capturing multiple images on his big camera and stacking them on his computer with the StarStax app, I found your video very interesting and informative. I'm particularly impressed that you managed to reveal the stars' colours in your final image. I do have a couple of comments.
1) I think it's important to choose an interesting foreground and light paint it with a soft light source to make your final image a bit more interesting.
2) I think a more interesting time lapse video is one where each image is just the night sky (and not partial trails), so you can see how the stars appear to rotate about the celestial pole. This makes a particularly good video if the Milky Way is included in your field of view. Presumably you need to choose different options, or use a different app, to create this kind of time lapse video.
Thank you very much for this. After watching your video I purchased Nightcap and gave it a go. This makes capturing Star Trails an absolute breeze👍. Will be passing this info on to some of the younger neighbourhood children interested in Astro photography. Cheers
Thanks for this video! Looking forward to the android version as I just got my Pixel 7 pro!
I’m looking forward to the android video!
How this channel doesn't have more subscribers is beyond me. This is another excellent tutorial, full of examples and tips, even some alternatives. Well displayed, well narrated, and it's free!! Nico, together with Astro Backyard and AstroBiscuit you guys are the reason I'm diving deeper and deeper into the night sky rabbit hole. Thanks for that!
Great video, now I know what my next project is.
Seriously amazing thank you so much!!!!
such a good tutorial on star trails capturing with I-phone! Very inspiring and very needed.
This is FANTASTIC!
Thanks for covering this topic. A great addition to the portfolio.
Thanks for the tutorial it was awesome 👏 And really appreciated you including the point for starting in the Southern Hemisphere as I’m an Aussie
Glad you liked it Audrey! And thank you for the Super Thanks! I appreciate it. Clear skies, Nico
I love this channel and Niko
I took my first star trail using Night Cap app on iPhone, was an amazing experience
Bro , away from video, I don't know why but this is the first vid I watched of your channel but I really like your style , accent, outfit, your face feature and smile, I think you are very nice guy. Good bless you and I hope you have a nice life for god ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Awesome, Nico! Thanks!
Wow, what an excellent video for explaining the process in making star trail photos on the iPhone. It is very clear and easy to follow. For me, I think this finally puts all the pieces together. I can't wait to start creating my own star photos! Thank you!
Wow! Never knew it could be so easy. Thanks.
wow I just took one just a couple of hours ago, what a coincidence 🔥
Thank you so very much Nico
Hey Nico. Love videos like this specifically involving smartphones because pretty much everyone has one. I've even seen people capture bright DSO's like the Orion nebula, You should do more like this!
Had the opportunity to learn this from you at a conference in Illinois and absolutely love this and the other things you brought to us. Love the channel and what you are spreading!
Fantastic Nico and very timely. Hoping to use this with my nephews and nieces over the holidays. Looking forward to a fun family project. Thanks for sharing
amazing, Thanks for sharing
Great, love it, thanks👍🏼
Hi Nico. Thanks very much for mentioning my app. I’ve been watching your videos for years so was a nice surprise to see it mentioned!
Regarding the video not exporting correctly… this is a bug that seems to have surfaced with one of the later iOS15 versions or possibly iOS16. I have fixed this and it’s currently in TestFlight before release in a week or two.
Thanks again!
I downloaded your app a while back to stack from a Nikon Full frame Z6ii, from the photos app, after saving them from the SD card to phone. Yours is the only app that allows that. Thank you for that. I can now stack images and make a time lapse from Mirrorless to iPhone in the field. Now it can all happen on a iPhone as standalone. Awesome!!
Ah, great to hear that! I really like your app, it's so clean and easy to use.
@@NebulaPhotos Hi Nico. Just in case you hadn't already seen it, the update was released shortly after this video came out and should address the corrupt video issue. Thanks!
@@starstackerapp Great! Thanks for letting me know!
Excellent - will give this a try - many thanks for sharing!
I just updated my iPhone to the 14 and I'm looking forward to trying this. I've always done star trails on my camera, processing in PS, but I'm always looking for additional astro tricks. Thanks so much!
Perfect! Will try with my s22 Ultra!
This one only covers iOS apps, but I hope to have the Android version ready in the next couple weeks!
be sure, man, you're gonna get the much more amazing results with your s22, then any other iphone)) And even without additional apps) (may be intervalometer app, if you need to make timelapses in manual)
As always thanks for the information in a simple way we newbies can understand!
Wow awesome
Nice Video Nico. I'm Gonna Try This For sure with my Phone. I think it's Worth photographing constellations too!
So nice to know! I know when I'm going home for Xmas there's a new phone under the tree and I'd love to try this at my parents bortle 2 skies! Additionally, as I stay out all night with my gear, it's super nice to have some 'smaller' more easily manageable, and forgiving setups next to your main rig that you can get some really cool pictures with. Thanks Nico!
Superb!! - I've not got an Iphone myself but I'm sure something similar could be achieved with my Pixel 7 Pro, - thanks for creating this Nico!
This is perfect! I've been getting into taking pictures of the stars lately. Found a nice dark area here in SoCal, was going to try a time-lapse video tonight(12-15-22) since we still have the Geminid Meteor Showershower. Honestly best money I'll invest in apps, Thank you so much
You remind me so much of Carl Sagan. It’s pretty cool👍
Magnificent
Yet another example why Nico is the BEST - keeping it interesting for all levels of beginners. Shame on us if we don't try an exercise or two.
Amazing thanku for sharing 😊
Thanks for the comprehensive video....great work sir....
I thought the Celestial Pole was some kind of divinity from Poland
WOW!!!! I’m so excited to try this tonight!! Ty!!!!!
Really cool! I get the same thing in real time with my Olympus cameras in live composite. Cheers!
Would love to see some working apps for Android cuz I still dont have iPhone. Anyway the video is awesome!
Same.
It's possible to do it with android too. Just have A phone that has like atleast 10s exposure
There probably plenty but so much rubbish on google play there hard to find
Very well explained. Thanks.
Dude this is incredible. Thanks for sharing. I want to get your complete setup. Which tripod is that?
Thanks for sharing .
The cheap tripod: i had one. Its ok for a tryout. But neither very stable nor you shouldnt expect more that 10 - 50 uses (depending on usage i guess) out of it before it breaks. And the phoneclamp: having a better one like shown (i had a worse one) is recomended.
Thanks!
Would love to know how to do this on Android.
Great video !! Thanks a lot
Thank you so much ❤
Just watch this video. I see it's a year old. Could you recommend an app or two on Android to create the star trails? Have The newest Samsung Galaxy S24 ultra.. recently downloaded Samsung's raw imaging editor app. There is an Astro feature but I haven't explored it yet. Thanks for all your awesome videos !
Great video. Interesting tripod head for the cell phone setup. Never seen a setup like this before (with the rod and head). Do you have a link to this head?
I was using this clamp: amzn.to/3Wo5Coh attached directly to the ballhead on my Peak Design Travel Tripod, but I also have had good luck with this very inexpensive smartphone tripod: amzn.to/3Yxs3JN
@@NebulaPhotos Thanks for the reply. But the cell phone holder I get; it's what is holding that cell phone holder i what I was asking about. It looks like it's a specialty head for which the cell phone is connected to. Never seen a ballhead like that. Must be unique to Peak Design.
Can you also use the star stacker app for normal astrophotography without making trails ? I just want to make the stars more noticeable
Good evening. Thank you for the video. I downloaded the app, but on mine, the option to program with infinite exposure does not appear. Do you know if the app has been updated and no longer has this feature? Thank you.
Is there any way to remove the satellites from a photo taken in star trails mode? I just tried my first one and there are like 12 satellites 😕 it kind of ruins the picture! So is my only option to try again in stars mode and then manually stack?
The infinite no longer seems to work while in Stars Mode, was this due to a newer version of the app? Is there a workaround or alternative method (aside the easy version)?
Great video Nico - did you ever do an Android version? EDIT: Found it!
Yep: ruclips.net/video/Vcj3uhy0NHw/видео.html
What was the final size (in mb or gb) of the time lapse?
@Nebula Photos I have a question: I have a camera, lens (very wide 24-70mm F2.8), and ball-head tripod, but I want to improve my photos and maybe get a star tracker. I have a budget of $450, what would you do in my situation?
A question, would the star stacker app be good (basic enough) let's say if you are traveling light and you do like a milky way stack, a milky way timelapse or a rho ophiuci lets say then use photoshop for ipad for photo editing? Just trying to see what the limits are.
As far as I can tell it's really just designed for star trails. The two things it doesn't do that would be necessary for normal milky way / deep sky stacking:
1. Star Alignment
2. Median stacking (it only does lighten)
6:50 for those bargain hunters you could also just screen record the process
Can we import raw images on the star stacker app?
hi can anyone put some light over how much storage are we talking if I consider taking an hour long star trail with the second method ?
I'm assuming the stacking can be done on the PC too?
Yes, StarStax is free and excellent: markus-enzweiler.de/software/starstax/
whats ur opinion on Star Walk 2?
It seems like a good app. You can use that instead of stellarium mobile to orient yourself with the sky.
Will it even work on my iPhone 7 Plus?
Yes, the Nighcap Camera app works with iOS 14 and newer - the iPhone 7 Plus can upgrade to iOS 16 so it should be fully compatible.
can that star stacker app stack stars and nebulae like deepskystacker or other software? or is it only for star trails?
Will this work also using an android phone too
I will do a separate video for Star Trails on Android - coming soon!
@@NebulaPhotos thanks for thinking of us droid users. -:)
Why won't the app let me use the interval scheduler in conjunction with the "star mode" option? It only allows me to use it with "long exposure" and "light strokes", I don't understand, I leave the same settings as you but at the time of pressing the shutter button it only takes a single picture. I'm frustrated :(
Sorry, I remember the interval timer used to work in Stars mode but now I’m finding just like you. I’d suggest using ‘light trails’ mode
does star stacker only do trails or can it do regular stacking too (without a tracking mount)?
Just star trails. I haven't yet found an app on the iPhone that does regular stacking which requires star alignment.
What..? How would stringing them together in iMovie help? Each of the 200-frame videos would restart the trail. Do we also have to retain the last frame of the previous clip and overlay them?
And the screen recording of the preview is very extremely much lower resolution than the source, not an acceptable solution.
Surely having a maximum photo number must be a bug?
It’s been fixed in that app. The developer saw my video and was able to fix it. I’m not sure what you mean about it not working in iMovie. This is a way I make Timelapses all the time, just drop all the photos in a timeline in a
Video editor, and change the duration of all the photos to a small duration. No need to overlay them, when you make the duration small enough it will work like animation, each frame is a picture, but if they go fast enough (at least 15 frames per second, ideally 24 fps) your brain can’t process that
sir, do you know were I can download hd-jpeg pictures of star streak for an project
Here you go: commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=star+trails&title=Special:MediaSearch&go=Go&type=image
what app would you use if someone has an Android phone
Intervalometer. But since I have the Samsung galaxy S23 I can use the ×300 Astro hyperlaspe mode on the main Samsung camera
I made an Android version of this tutorial here: ruclips.net/video/Vcj3uhy0NHw/видео.html
@@NebulaPhotos oh cool thank you so much
Is there an Android equivalent for NightCap Camera? Couldn't locate in Google Play Store using the prescribed name/title. Thanks.
Not exactly, Android version of this tutorial coming soon though! In that one I’ll be using the intervalometer for Timelapse app ($1.99) by the developer Mobile Photon and the Star Trails app (free with ads) by the developer SLASH.
Anybody have software recommendations for making these trail images/videos on a desktop computer, whether Mac, PC, or Linux, if given a series of stills from any source, whether an iPhone or other smartphone or any other camera? I know that there are several options, but I'm wondering which one you all would recommend as the best for making exactly these effects.
Yes, StarStax is my favorite and it’s free!
@@NebulaPhotos excellent, StarStaX is what I use now, was just wondering if others had a different favorite and if so then what do they like about theirs. :)
Ok, just getting started....i hope there is some relevance to Androids here....
👍
Thi app doesn’t save any star pictures in star mode! I took over 100 photos and stopped. Went back and couldn’t find any of them at all!?!?
Sorry! I think something changed since I made this. Try ‘light trails’ mode
Please do an Android version
Coming later this week
nightcap on iphone 15 pro max after 24 min turned off my mobile.
make for android
"Star to Finish" ehEeheHehehe
1.st step: CLEAN UP YOUR LENS :)
Android tutorial??? Galaxy s22 ultra is a killer phone..
Android tutorial coming soon
Why always IPhone? Two thirds are Android.
I'll be doing android in a separate video in a couple weeks. Since the apps /process is different, I thought it would be too confusing to combine into one video.
well, my results with smartphone astrophotography comes to the conclusion, that iphone totally s*cks in it. Before I moved to the iphone 13pro, I had a huawei p30pro, and it was a beast! And without any additional apps, manual mode is amazing. Pixel makes a good results with it's own astro mode, even the samsung. But iphone s*cks, sorry. Love this phone, but it's not for night skies
Owning both those phones, my conclusion is a bit different. The Huawei P30 Pro has a very good sensor and camera app that with lots of practice I have been able to get good results with if I transfer the photos to my computer. The biggest problem with iPhone for astrophotography is not the sensor, but the hardware limitation that only allows up to 5 second long photos. This is a let down for milky way, but doesn't matter too much for star trails (subject of the video here). The 3rd-party astrophotography apps available for iOS are 100x better than anything I've seen on Android, which are buggy and full of stupid ads and other nonsense. So it's sort of a wash. If you just want the best performance go for a Huawei, Samsung or Sony phone. if you want a very smooth, satisfying experience, nothing beats NightCap Camera app.
@@NebulaPhotos I agree that android apps are mostly terrible, that's why I said you don't even need it on huawei or pixel, just a standart camera app))) The main idea of my comment is that iphone 13pro is amazing phone I love so much (and won't update till 15th), and the same time really bad in night sky photography. After this video i bought NightCap, but the miracle didn't happened)) Much worse then huawei or pixel that creates amazing results with standart camera app. And of course, for the best performance we have to use fullframes))
Waste of money. I can
Only take 3 photos and he can take infinity howwwww
In the settings under interval timer where you see 3x, tap that icon, a slider will appear under it, move that slider all the way to the right to get to ‘infinity’*
*you will of course be limited by the battery/storage or your phone. It just means keep taking photos until you stop it.
Cheers, Nico
Hello there … I’ve done that as well , slider is all the way to far right ( infinity ) .. it takes one 10 sec exp then that’s it .. stops .. I’m pretty sure I’m not setting it right but I’ve tried different combo settings … my star trail pic turned out great but I can’t get the “video” to work right
Celestial pole that’s the Northstar why are you not just calling it the Northstar? It sounds weird.
Thank you very much 👍
Thanks!