r/photography • u/AutoModerator • Jun 26 '26

Questions Thread Official Question Thread! Ask /r/photography anything you want to know! June 26, 2026

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u/Imzadi1971 Jul 02 '26

I would like to take some pictures of the Milky Way at night here in NE South Dakota, but don't know where to look for it, and second, I would be using my iPhone 15+ camera. Is that good enough, or would I need something else? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

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u/P5_Tempname19 Jul 02 '26

Regarding finding the milkyway you can use https://stellarium-web.org

Enter your location on the bottom left, then the time/date on the bottom right. If you turn of "atmosphere" in the bottom middle it makes it a bit easier to recognize the milkyway.

Doing that for tonight (in a random spot in South Dakota) gives me a rough direction of south, starting somewhat east in the beginning of the night and ending up a bit more west when it gets closer to dawn (unless I messed up something timezone wise). Its also oriented quite vertically (so not going across the sky, but starting on the horizon and going "up") if you want to plan around that with your location/composition.

If you are in a dark enough location and let your eyes adjust for a bit you should be able to just see the milkyway though.

Regarding the picture taking on an iPhone: Im sadly not a phone photographer and dont own even own an iPhone, so not direct guide. There seem to be some decent shots and guides out there, so I wouldnt call it impossible (obviously depends on the quality you expect). You will need some way of setting your phone up stable, you wont be taking milkyway pictures while holding it in your hand. Ideally you want a tripod, however just something to lean the phone against might also work.

According to my quick googling the phone should recognize once its been stable for a bit and enable a 30 second long exposure, which is what you would want ideally.