I went stargazing in the Atacama Desert and used a hidden iOS 26 feature to capture the night sky heres how to take similar photos on your iPhone

Date:
Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:00:00 +0000

Description:
iOS 26 features a hidden boost for your iPhones Night Mode, so I went to the Atacama Desert to try it out here are the results.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter If youre into astrophotography, youll know that clarity is everything. High-altitude regions with limited rainfall and minimal light pollution are perfect for stargazing because of the clear skies they provide, and Chiles Atacama desert famed for being the worlds driest (and highest) non-polar desert is among the best places on Earth to set up your telescope.

Alas, I didnt have room for a telescope in my backpack during a recent visit to South America, but I did have my trusty iPhone 16 Pro Max. And so when I arrived at the small town of San Pedro de Atacama for a spot of stargazing in January, I thought Id put the astrophotography capabilities of Apple s 2025 flagship to the test. I know what youre thinking: why did I take the iPhone
16 Pro Max , and not the shiny new iPhone 17 Pro Max ? Well, mainly because
Im contractually obliged to share all phone samples with my TechRadar colleagues (boo!), and it didnt seem fair to steal away our only iPhone 17
Pro Max unit for several months. But also, the iPhone 16 Pro Max runs iOS 26 just as comfortably as its successor, and Apples latest software update introduced a hidden nightography feature that I was eager to try on any compatible iPhone. Article continues below You may like The Seestar S30 Pro
is the smart telescope I've been waiting for my whole life here's why The first iPhone 17 Pro Max photos sent from the Artemis II mission I turned the Artemis II mission's most stunning Earth photo into an iPhone wallpaper

Night Mode has been a feature of all iPhones (excluding iPhone SE) since the iPhone 11 and iOS 13, but iOS 26 saw Apple introduce Night Mode Max, which raises the exposure ceiling from 10 seconds to 30 seconds. This essentially allows the iPhones camera sensor to capture three times more light and
deliver sharper night photos as a result. Night Mode Max allows for up to 30 seconds of exposure time (Image credit: Future) Night Modes default three-second exposure time is enough to capture a dimly lit street in detail, but its nowhere near enough if youre hoping to capture the invisible intricacies of a night sky scene (think galaxies, nebulae, star trails, et al.).

The caveat is that, to access Night Mode Max, your iPhone has to remain completely still or be placed on a tripod. And luckily, during my visit to
the Atacama Desert, a local Chilean astronomer kindly allowed me to borrow
his tripod for a single photo.

I set up my iPhone 16 Pro Max in the mount, selected the Night Mode Auto toggle which automatically appears at the top of the viewfinder when in a dark environment and let the device go through the motions for 30 seconds. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our
trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. The unedited result of Night Mode Max (Image credit: Future) Et voil! The photo above is the unedited version of the image captured by my iPhone 16 Pro Max in the Atacama Desert.

The cloudy band on the left is the Milky Way, and that fuzzy patch of light
on the right is the Large Magellanic Cloud a dwarf galaxy only visible from the Southern Hemisphere. The straight line at the bottom of the frame is, I hope, a shooting star, but it could well be a satellite passing through the exposure.

In any case, I was pretty happy with what the iPhone 16 Pro Max was able to capture in Night Mode Max. My colleague, Lance, ran a comparison between the nightography capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max last year, and I think the additional 20 seconds of exposure time granted to my shot via iOS 26 yielded visibly different results. What to read next Your iPhone's Camera Control button has a slew of hidden features here's how to use them all Artemis II astronaut snaps stunning Moon photo with an iPhone 17 Pro Max The best camera phone 2026

Of course, almost all night photos can be improved with a touch of editing, but I recognize that most people arent comfortable using complex editing apps like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop . So heres what I managed to come up with using the built-in editing tools in the iPhones Photos app (Image credit: Future) Now, Im no professional photographer or particularly adept photo editor, but thats not a bad result for an iPhone. And not even the latest model!

At this point, I should probably admit that the aforementioned Chilean astronomer told me which edits to implement on my photo, since he regularly uses his own iPhone to capture the night sky in San Pedro de Atacama. I typically play around with Exposure, Brilliance, Highlights, and Contrast,
but he went the whole hog and tweaked nearly every option available in the Photos app.

Here are the exact edits, in case you want to replicate them yourself: Exposure: -21 Brilliance: +17 Highlights: -25 Shadows: -29 Contrast: +25 Brightness: +7 Black Point: +7 Saturation: +27 Vibrancy: -16 Warmth: -55
Tint: -61 Sharpness: +49 Definition: +68 Noise reduction: +49 So there you have it the best way, in my opinion (and in the opinion of a talented
Chilean astronomer, whose name I dearly wish I could remember), to capture
the night sky on an iOS 26-compatible iPhone: activate Night Mode Max, and edit the bejesus out of the resulting photo.

Of course, dedicated telescopes will yield even better results, and weve detailed how to step up your stargazing game on the cheap in a separate article. But its amazing to see how far astrophotography has come on devices once considered incapable of capturing the night sky in any meaningful
detail. A daytime view of the Atacama Desert in Chile proof that I was
there! (Image credit: Future) Today's best iPhone deals Contract Deals Sim Free Apple iPhone Air 36 months Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 5GB data 40 upfront 41.49 /mth View at Vodafone Ltd See all prices gift Apple iPhone 17
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