Introduction

On the weekend of October 5th, I visited a small village on the northern outskirts of Madrid called Galapagar. Since the area experiences much less light pollution than Madrid, I took the opportunity to capture some photos of the night sky. Armed with my phone’s long-exposure mode, I took two pictures early Saturday morning:

Sky 1
Sky 1

In long-exposure mode, the camera captures light over a longer period of time (usually around 10 seconds), making bright objects in the scene stand out sharply against a darker background. This technique is ideal for taking pictures of stars and other celestial bodies in the night sky.

What Did I Capture?

Since I’m no expert in astronomy, I used an app called Stellarium to identify what I had captured. A cool feature of this app is that you can set the exact date and time to recreate the sky as it appeared at the moment the photos were taken. Here’s a breakdown of the times:

  • First picture: October 5th, 2024, at 7:14 AM
  • Second picture: October 5th, 2024, at 7:03 AM

Thanks to Stellarium, I was able to identify several major celestial bodies and constellations:

Sky 1
Sky 1

What Stands Out?

In both images, the brightest object is unmistakably Jupiter, which is prominent due to its size and proximity. Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is currently almost aligned with Earth, bringing it closer to us than usual.

In the top right corner of the first image (right center of the second image), you can spot the famous Pleiades star cluster (Messier 45). This ancient cluster, located about 445 light-years away, contains a few thousand stars loosely bound by gravity [1]. However, its visibility is dominated by a handful of brighter stars, labelled on the images.

Constellations and Celestial Bodies

  • In the first photo, I was able to identify the constellations Gemini, Orion, and Canis Minor.
  • In the second photo, the constellations Auriga, Gemini, Lynx, and Taurus are visible.

Gemini, which represents the Greek mythological twins Castor and Pollux, features two bright stars named after these figures. Interestingly, Mars can be seen between the twin stars in both pictures.

Orion, named after the legendary hunter from Greek mythology, is another standout constellation. You can easily spot him by his distinctive belt, made up of three aligned stars. Hanging from this belt is the Great Orion Nebula (Messier 42), one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky [2]. Orion also hosts Betelgeuse, a red supergiant and the tenth brightest star in the sky. Betelgeuse, with a radius about 700 times that of the Sun, is in the later stages of its life. Despite being much younger than the Sun, its large mass causes it to evolve more quickly, making it a good candidate for a supernova in the distant future [3]. Betelgeuse’s characteristic red glow is one of the most easily recognizable features in Orion.

Taurus, the bull, is one of the oldest known constellations. Within Taurus, you’ll find both the Pleiades cluster and Aldebaran, a red giant that is the constellation’s brightest star. Aldebaran’s reddish tint contrasts with the blueish tones of Theta Tauri 1 and 2, a nearby binary star system in the Hyades cluster.

As in all binary star systems, Theta Tauri 1 and 2 are gravitationally bound to each other and orbit a common center of mass [4]. These stars are so close together that they appear as a single point of light to the naked eye. Amazingly, however, these two stars are distinguishable even with a phone camera when zooming in:

Sky 1

Lastly, Uranus makes a very faint appearance just to the right of Taurus in the second picture, something I wouldn’t have noticed without the help of Stellarium.

Final Thoughts

I was amazed by how much can be observed with just a phone and a bit of patience. The skies above us, which we so often overlook, are wonderful and accessible almost every night, clouds permitting! Capturing three visible planets in one session (Jupiter, Mars, and Uranus) was an unexpected delight. It was also rewarding to see that even the faintest stars I photographed matched Stellarium’s predictions, with the closest stars like Theta Tauri 1 and 2 clearly distinguishable.

Astrophotography is surprisingly within reach, and I look forward to exploring the night sky even more in the future.