{"id":382945,"date":"2025-08-29T17:02:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/382945\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T17:02:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:02:45","slug":"i-was-shooting-astrophotography-with-my-pixel-10-pro-xl-when-i-saw-this-strange-phenomena-in-the-sky-heres-what-i-witnessed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/382945\/","title":{"rendered":"I Was Shooting Astrophotography With My Pixel 10 Pro XL When I Saw This Strange Phenomena in the Sky \u2014 Here\u2019s What I Witnessed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly every night I\u2019m outside setting up for some kind of astrophotography shoot, and since I\u2019ve been testing the Pixel 10<\/a> and Pixel 10 Pro XL<\/a> for the past week, I thought I\u2019d put them to the test.<\/p>\n

Given how I was impressed with the Pixel 9 Pro XL\u2019s astrophotography performance<\/a> when I tested it out last year, my expectations are naturally high for the new model. The Pixel 10 Pro XL has a dedicated astrophotography mode, so long as the phone is placed on a tripod or remaining very still.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While I was imaging patches of the night sky in my backyard with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, I got an alert that NASA\u2019s rocket launch from its Wallops Flight Facility<\/a> in Virginia was greenlit to move forward.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

I had less than 10 minutes to get to a prime spot, so I quickly picked up my gear along with my Pixel 10 Pro XL to get down to the beach to get the best, unobstructed view of the launch. As soon as I got myself situated, that\u2019s when this phenomena appeared in the sky \u2014 and it was truly special.<\/p>\n

NASA Wallops rocket launch with Pixel 10 Pro XL<\/p>\n

\"Pixel<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

Just a little over a minute after the launch, a phenomenon manifested in the sky. With my Pixel 10 Pro XL strapped into a tripod, I switched over to Night Sight Mode and proceeded to shoot photos and videos. The vapor trails from the rockets were immediately visible in the photo above, but that was just the beginning.<\/p>\n

When the rocket plunged from the atmosphere, the most impressive spectacle of this launch happened. It almost looked like there was a rip in space-time from the iridescence of the vapor trails expanding, resulting in a giant lightning bolt appearing stuck in place.<\/p>\n

I even managed to catch a telephoto shot of this moment with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, which exposed a lot more of the vapor trail.<\/p>\n

Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.<\/p>\n

Image 1 of 7<\/p>\n

\"Google(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Google(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Google(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Google(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Google(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Google(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Google(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

Eventually the vapor trails began to dissipate in the night sky, producing this ghostly halo-esque fixture. The Pixel 10 Pro XL did an amazing job of capturing this rare event, including the Night Sight Video I recorded, but my night wasn\u2019t done just yet.<\/p>\n

Pixel 10 Pro XL astrophotography results<\/p>\n

Image 1 of 8<\/p>\n

\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

This time of the year, there aren\u2019t many notable deep space objects to image in the night sky where I live. Or at least, ones that are large enough targets for the Pixel 10 Pro XL to capture. Nevertheless, I pointed the phone to different parts of the sky and snapped the images above.<\/p>\n

To get the best astrophotography results with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, you’ll want to put it on a tripod, and then wait for the Night Sight shutter button in the camera app to change to one that looks like stars. That\u2019s when you know it\u2019s in astrophotography mode, which can take upwards of 4 minutes to capture a single shot.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth waiting that long because the phone is able to absorb as much light as possible, while minimizing the noise that typically crops up in the shadows.<\/p>\n

I also like how there\u2019s not as much of that banding effect that some other phones produce with long exposure photography. And while there\u2019s Pro Controls to let me adjust the shutter speed, ISO, and other settings, you really don\u2019t need to bother with them because astrophotography mode works so well.<\/p>\n

Image 1 of 4<\/p>\n

\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)\"Pixel(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Pixel 10 Pro XL also creates a short timelapse clip that shows the movement of the stars, which you can see above in the gallery.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the moon wasn\u2019t visible at all, nor were there large enough galaxies and nebulas for me to try out its zoom performance. At one point I tried a zoom shot of Jupiter, but it only produced a twinkling shot of the planet.<\/p>\n

I do intend to capture more astrophotography with the Pixel 10 Pro XL closer to the fall, when there are better targets to image: the Seven Sisters cluster, Great Orion Nebula, and the Andromeda Galaxy. I\u2019m definitely curious to see what the phone’s 100x Pro Res Zoom <\/a>does to enhance them.<\/p>\n

Follow Tom’s Guide on Google News<\/a> to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.<\/p>\n

More from Tom’s Guide\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly every night I\u2019m outside setting up for some kind of astrophotography shoot, and since I\u2019ve been testing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-382945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115113135630450105","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}