Nearly every night I’m outside setting up for some kind of astrophotography shoot, and since I’ve been testing the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro XL for the past week, I thought I’d put them to the test.
Given how I was impressed with the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s astrophotography performance 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.
While I was imaging patches of the night sky in my backyard with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, I got an alert that NASA’s rocket launch from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia was greenlit to move forward.
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’s when this phenomena appeared in the sky — and it was truly special.
NASA Wallops rocket launch with Pixel 10 Pro XL
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.
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.
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.
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’t done just yet.
Pixel 10 Pro XL astrophotography results
This time of the year, there aren’t 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.
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’s when you know it’s in astrophotography mode, which can take upwards of 4 minutes to capture a single shot.
It’s 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.
I also like how there’s not as much of that banding effect that some other phones produce with long exposure photography. And while there’s Pro Controls to let me adjust the shutter speed, ISO, and other settings, you really don’t need to bother with them because astrophotography mode works so well.
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.
Unfortunately, the moon wasn’t 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.
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’m definitely curious to see what the phone's 100x Pro Res Zoom does to enhance them.
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