- Real Name
- Chris
Shooting stars: beautiful, but rare and fleeting... basically, a real nightmare to photograph. Something you wouldn't even consider on an iPhone. Let's fix that and make it fun, easy and iPhone compatible 
For this guide, you'll need eyes, something to lie down on, a tripod + iPhone adaptor, and a copy of the amazing* NightCap Pro app.
* Written by me, and I might be biased
But I'm pretty certain it's the best (and probably only!) app that can do this.
The goal is a photo like this (but ideally a lot better):
What is that? Those lines forming circles are stars in the sky. That photo was captured over roughly an hour, enough time for the earth to spin through space a bit, and the stars to spin round in the sky. They're forming circles because I pointed the camera north - that star the others are spinning around? That's the Pole Star. And that streak at the top is a shooting star!
I took that one with an iPhone 5S on a pretty standard night, the shooting star was just captured by chance - actually quite a lot of my night photos catch them, because they're not *that* rare after all! During a meteor shower there can be perhaps 20x more of them, that's all.
So, on with the guide!
What is a meteor shower?
Meteor showers happen when a comet (or sometimes an asteroid) crosses the earth’s orbit around the sun. They leave behind a trail of dust and small bits of ice and rock, and each time the earth passes through this trail lots of these bits burn up in our atmosphere. Each time it happens, we see a shooting star.
When to see a meteor shower
Well, now. But there are many meteor showers throughout the year. There’s an easy to follow calendar of meteor showers at moongiant.com (click here).
What to expect
It depends on a few things, but 5-6 meteors per hour is a reasonable minimum to expect, if you’re lucky you’ll see a lot more. Some will be small streaks of light across the sky, a few will be big with flashes of light, and if you’re lucky you’ll see a fireball!
A few things can have an impact on the experience:
First, find a dark area away from bright lights. The darker it is, the more your eyes will open up, the better your night vision will get, and the more meteors you will see. You want somewhere with a clear view of the sky, so an open field or park is good.
Then, lie down on the ground (or on a camping bed, reclining chair etc.), look up, and wait.
Equipment to take
Capturing shooting stars with an iPhone is easy if you use the NightCapPro app. Once set up, you can simply leave it running while you enjoy the view! Here’s how to do it:
If you leave it to capture for more than a few minutes, you’ll see the stars start to move across the picture as the earth spins around in space after a while it'll look something like this, and you can tap the shutter again to finish taking the photo:
That's another one not taken during a meteor shower, but again you can see a characteristic dash of of shooting star in the middle near the top. You can also see other odd things. Here's a quick list of oddities you might encounter, and an explanation:
For this guide, you'll need eyes, something to lie down on, a tripod + iPhone adaptor, and a copy of the amazing* NightCap Pro app.
* Written by me, and I might be biased
But I'm pretty certain it's the best (and probably only!) app that can do this.The goal is a photo like this (but ideally a lot better):
What is that? Those lines forming circles are stars in the sky. That photo was captured over roughly an hour, enough time for the earth to spin through space a bit, and the stars to spin round in the sky. They're forming circles because I pointed the camera north - that star the others are spinning around? That's the Pole Star. And that streak at the top is a shooting star!
I took that one with an iPhone 5S on a pretty standard night, the shooting star was just captured by chance - actually quite a lot of my night photos catch them, because they're not *that* rare after all! During a meteor shower there can be perhaps 20x more of them, that's all.
So, on with the guide!
What is a meteor shower?
Meteor showers happen when a comet (or sometimes an asteroid) crosses the earth’s orbit around the sun. They leave behind a trail of dust and small bits of ice and rock, and each time the earth passes through this trail lots of these bits burn up in our atmosphere. Each time it happens, we see a shooting star.
When to see a meteor shower
Well, now. But there are many meteor showers throughout the year. There’s an easy to follow calendar of meteor showers at moongiant.com (click here).
What to expect
It depends on a few things, but 5-6 meteors per hour is a reasonable minimum to expect, if you’re lucky you’ll see a lot more. Some will be small streaks of light across the sky, a few will be big with flashes of light, and if you’re lucky you’ll see a fireball!
A few things can have an impact on the experience:
- Clouds will block your view. If it’s really cloudy, you’ll see nothing at all. Wait for a clear sky.
- The moon! A full moon is really bright, it ruins your night vision and lights up the sky making it hard to see fainter shooting stars. The moongiant meteor shower calendar shows how bright the moon will be.
- Light pollution limits what you can see. As a rule, the more stars you can see, the more meteors you’ll see too. Search online for your nearest dark sky site!
First, find a dark area away from bright lights. The darker it is, the more your eyes will open up, the better your night vision will get, and the more meteors you will see. You want somewhere with a clear view of the sky, so an open field or park is good.
Then, lie down on the ground (or on a camping bed, reclining chair etc.), look up, and wait.
Equipment to take
- Something to lie on (a picnic mat, camping bed, beach towel – whatever suits your location)
- A tripod with an iPhone or smartphone adaptor
- The NightCap Pro app
- If it’s going to be cold, warm clothes (or a sleeping bag) and a hot drink
Capturing shooting stars with an iPhone is easy if you use the NightCapPro app. Once set up, you can simply leave it running while you enjoy the view! Here’s how to do it:
- Put your iPhone on a tripod if possible. You can buy a tripod and/or a smartphone to tripod adaptor very cheaply online – it doesn’t have to be professional, a basic model will be fine. You’ll be taking very long exposure photos, so it’s important to keep the phone stable.
- Set your iPhone to Airplane mode, and make sure any alarms/reminders are turned off! Incoming messages and alerts can spoil the photo!
- Open NightCap Pro, and turn on Night Mode (moon icon). This makes the camera much more sensitive, so it can capture much fainter stars (including the shooting kind). A green light indicates that it’s turned on.
- Set the camera mode to “Light Trails” by tapping on the star (camera modes) button, then selecting the stretched, solid star.
- You need the camera to focus on the stars. This can be tricky, especially with older iPhone models, as the iPhone camera struggles to focus on stars well. If you have difficulty (zooming in will help check if it’s well focused), try focusing on anything bright on the horizon, such as trees outlined against the glow of street lights. As long as it’s 50 meters/yards away or more, it will work fine.
- Once it’s nicely focused, lock focus (tap the Foc/Exp/WB button to open the locks panel, then tap FOC. A green light indicates that focus is locked.
If you leave it to capture for more than a few minutes, you’ll see the stars start to move across the picture as the earth spins around in space after a while it'll look something like this, and you can tap the shutter again to finish taking the photo:
That's another one not taken during a meteor shower, but again you can see a characteristic dash of of shooting star in the middle near the top. You can also see other odd things. Here's a quick list of oddities you might encounter, and an explanation:
- Dashed lines (you can see a couple in that photo above). Often straight, sometimes with a bend. It's an aeroplane. The flashing lights on the wings leave that characteristic dashed-line.
- Smooth, perfectly straight lines. These are usually satellites. Yep, you can photograph satellites with your iPhone too! They always travel in straight lines, and don't have flashing lights so it'll be a smooth line.
- Dashes that look like shooting stars but aren't. Sometimes you'll see a "double dash". These are satellites, but a special type - this is called an "Iridium Flare". Iridium is the name of the satellites (there are many) I think, and for some reason their solar panels catch the light of the sun and cause a "flash". You can get iPhone apps that predict when you can see one of these!
- There's a lot more, some of it really strange to see! Iridescent clouds, moon dogs / halos... if you spot something weird, let me know
And forgive me when I'll come back to this when I've tried more. 
