NASA, however, had a few suggestions how to safely watch the eclipse or take pictures of it with your trusty handset that’s always in your hand or pocket:
We asked our @NASAHQPhoto team, and the answer is yes, the phone sensor could be damaged just like any other image sensor if it’s pointed directly at the Sun. This is especially true if you’re using any sort of magnifying lens attachment on the phone. You would need to utilize the proper filters just like on any other camera. The best practice would be to hold a pair of eclipse glasses in front of your phone’s lenses when photographing the Sun at any point other than totality.
Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy pictures of the eclipse?
Curb your enthusiasm
While dishing out exposure advice, NASA warns people to lower their expectations about the results that would come out, no matter how advanced phone cameras are now. Instead, it suggests that they take photos of the people’s reactions to the total solar eclipse, or of the dusky landscape that forms in daytime.
Folks, however, still went and used their iPhones and Samsung Galaxy handsets to take snaps of the eclipse with various success, and we are gathering a few of the shots to showcase how they fared.
There aren’t all that many eclipse photos shot directly on an iPhone or a Galaxy in the public domain, suggesting that people may have taken NASA’s advice to preserve their phones’ sensors and lenses to heart, but the ones below demonstrate how well could the eclipse experience be recorded with just a phone in hand.
Shot on Galaxy
“I had an extra pair of glasses, so I cut the lenses out and taped them over my phone,” clarifies the OP. They say that the Galaxy S23 Ultra‘s camera was totally fine after the session, and is working as before.
Shot on iPhone
In any case, if you think you have managed to take a better photo of the total solar eclipse that will only come about again in 2044, send them to us.
We will try and include them in the roundup of phone astrophotography during the most eagerly awaited celestial event of the year… and the twenty thereafter.
