iPhone 11 Pro Night Mode on iPhone 11 Pro

[oeagleo]

Trying to take pics of the comet Neowise, with mixed results. First, I shot the below photo from my back yard, using the 11 Pro, and "Night Mode". Note there were reference points of the neighbors house, and while not perfect, not a bad shot using the phone hand held.
Then, I got the idea to set the phone up in an area that has no lights, no obstructed views, and somewhat darker overall. The results were nothing but a blank screen, with the "Big Dipper" barely visible. This was using night mode also, and I'm puzzled why the differences.
Could it be that the Night Mode in the camera needs an object as a base exposure reference, to determine the differences? Anyone have any idea why the hand held shot is so much better than the one set up on the tripod, which, in theory should have been much better.

 

[Capeto]

My guess is that the iPhone's automagic software enhancements probably got confused at the very low amount of light the sensor was receiving, not knowing you were aiming at the night sky, and tried to overcompensate. You might have better results using an app that allows for manual exposure and just doing a long exposure using the tripod.

 

[oeagleo]

My guess is that the iPhone's automagic software enhancements probably got confused at the very low amount of light the sensor was receiving, not knowing you were aiming at the night sky, and tried to overcompensate. You might have better results using an app that allows for manual exposure and just doing a long exposure using the tripod.

Actually, I tried that, using an app "Camera+2", and wound up with about the same results. Tried exposures from about 15 seconds to 30. I noticed after I gave up that the ISO was set at "2", and well, I had given up at that point, couldn't figure out how to adjust the ISO. I know, RTFM..

 

[akash.nu]

That’s definitely a confused camera sensor.

Although not of the comet but I managed to shoot this as a night shot.