How to take a picture of the northern lights with your phone

Stunning photos of the northern lights in Michigan skies Thursday night are all over social media.

While you may not be able to see them easily with the naked eye because human eyes have difficulty perceiving the colors of the aurora at night, modern cameras have less limitations, according to EarthSky.org .

If you missed your chance to take your own photos Thursday, the lights, also known as the aurora borealis, may be visible again Friday — and you can capture them with a smartphone like an iPhone.

How to take a picture of the northern lights

You're going to need to use your smartphone's manual mode to take the best photos of the northern lights, according to a blog for the hello aurora app , which offers real-time forecasts of the lights.

It suggests altering the exposure near 10 seconds and setting the ISO to 800, then adjusting to your preferred intensity.

How do I capture the northern lights with an iPhone?

Some experts suggest using an iPhone's Night mode and 1x lens, which has the best low light capabilties. According the Apple, iPhones 11 and later have Night mode .

Night mode should automatically turn on when the camera detects a low-light environment. The Night mode icon on the screen, which looks like a crescent moon with lines through it, turns yellow when the feature is active.

To manually adjust the exposure on an iPhone:

• Open the camera app.
• Tap the screen to show the automatic focus area and exposure setting.
• Tap where you want to move the focus area.
• Drag the sun icon that's next to the focus area up or down to adjust the exposure.

You can also click the arrow in the camera app to reveal additional settings. Then click the circle with the +/- in it and manually adjust the exposure.

Use a tripod if you have one!

Experts also suggest using a tripod because cameras need to be well stabilized to take a picture with long exposure. If you don't have a tripod, find something else to lay your camera on.

If you need more help, check out a how-to video by The Aurora Chasers , northern lights specialists in Alaska, on YouTube. Florida weatherman Bobby Deskins also has an instructional video on YouTube .

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How to take a picture of the northern lights with your phone