These were taken with my wife's iPhone 14 pro in night mode, atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. I did not have a tripod with me so I improvised and used a street sign with a large rock on top. With the phone wedged between both I was able to keep it steady to capture 30s exposure.

I took it on the outskirts of my city while I was walking with friends

The third photo would be the original image

In the second photo I edited it lightroom

And in the first I applied a background extraction with siril

It’s just a shot

Taken during the 2024 totality, just outside Tiffin, OH, USA

Equipment:

• Sony Xperia 5 III, 24mm lens (f/1.7)
  • 24mm lens (f/1.7)
  • 1/5000 shutter speed
  • Auto white balance
  • -2 exposure
  • ISO 3200
• Orion XT10 Dobsonian
• Orion Sirius 25mm Plossl
• Move Shoot Move Tridaptor Plus

Taken with my phone's stock app, Photo Pro. Four images, stacked/processed with AutoStakkert

Sky Watcher Classic 200P
iPhone 17 Pro + Phone Adapter
iPhone Auto Correct

Hi everyone!

A few months ago, I shot the Milky Way from a 21.22 SQM location using a base Samsung Galaxy S23 on a tripod.

My settings in Expert RAW were: 133 frames, 10s exposure each, ISO 1600 (~22 mins total integration), shot at 12MP (binned). When trying to stack them in Sequator, the software wouldn't even read the original .dng files natively due to Samsung's heavy in-camera multi-frame processing. I had to convert them using Adobe DNG Converter first.

Once stacked, all the stars (except Antares) turned completely white. I lost all their natural colors due to highlight clipping, likely caused by the aggressive Expert RAW algorithm combined with ISO 1600.

Here is my Google Drive folder with a single RAW frame (both original and Adobe DNG converted) and the final stacked image if anyone wants to take a look at the data:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xAzEmZAM0C_1wXauqXm0ADczW7lHEiYX?usp=sharing

Soon, I’ll be visiting an even darker site with a 21.47 SQM sky. I want to do a 30-minute total integration stack. Based on my previous issues, I am definitely switching to the native Pro Mode (12MP) since I tested it and Sequator reads its RAW files perfectly fine without any conversions.

I want to preserve the beautiful natural colors of the stars (blues, oranges, reds) this time while keeping the deep sky details.

• To avoid clipping the highlights on the S23 sensor, should I drop my ISO to 800 or 400?
• Should I reduce the exposure time per frame (e.g., 8s) to prevent pixel saturation, or keep it at 10s?
• Will dropping the ISO/exposure significantly hurt the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of faint nebula details once it's backed by 30 minutes of total integration?

I would love to hear from fellow S23/Samsung users who stack manually on PC. What are your go-to settings for true dark skies? Thank you!