With everything else going on over the past few days, I didn't even know there was a chance to see the Northern Lights. Earlier this year, there was an opportunity to this natural phenomenon, but I simply missed out. This time, I didn't miss out, and I was extremely lucky.
Last night, as dusk turned dark, I was scrolling through social media and saw a few posts explaining an ongoing solar storm. After the sun was down for the day, I went outside, hoping that I'd be able to see it, but I came up short. Then, I remembered that it was possible to "see" the Aurora Borealis with the help of a camera, even if it was not visible to the naked eye.
So I grabbed my Pixel 9 Pro Fold, opened the camera, switched over to Night Sight, and pointed it at the sky. What I ended up with was a picture of the sky with what kinda looks like a paintbrush stroke of magenta. Needless to say, I got extremely excited, so I went to try and find a tripod to set up the Pro Fold.
Astrophotography Mode takes about four minutes, and while it's possible to just stand and hold the phone in your hand, the results might not be what you had hoped.
Plus, it's practically impossible to stand completely still for four minutes, at least for me. My eight-month-old son was also fast asleep, and I didn't want to take a chance to wake him up by rummaging through drawers trying to find something that would work.
Then it struck me. I don't need a tripod. The Fold IS the tripod.
Thankfully, my back patio has wooden railings, making it the perfect place to set up the 9 Pro Fold. After about a minute or so of trying to line things up to avoid my neighbors' porch lights, I was ready to go.
After standing outside, being as still as I could, the 9 Pro Fold spit out the following image:
For the first time in my 34 years, I can finally say that I've seen the Northern Lights. Sure, I didn't see it with my own eyes, but I took the pictures, and it's something that I'll always remember.
All of which was made possible by a foldable phone, removing the need to build a contraption that allows me to angle a phone at the right angle. Instead, just let the phone do the hard work for you, relying on the hinge to let you position the camera to capture as much of the sky as you want.
While the Pixel 9 Pro Fold was my tool of choice, this time, it could technically be done with any foldable phone. This didn't do much to sway my opinion about how I wish Google would've used the same cameras from the Pixel 9 Pro.
What it did do is reaffirm my adoration for foldable phones and the flexibility offered by the form factor. I've long been a fan of this form factor, carrying one with me practically every day since the Galaxy Z Fold 2. After this experience, that will continue to be the case for as long as companies keep making them.
That was originally the end of this piece until I went to download and transfer the images to my computer. As luck would have it, I captured something besides just the Northern Lights.
Pretty darn incredible, if I do say so myself.
Ultimate flexibility
Google's refreshed foldable phone is quite an enormous design leap over its predecessor. While it falls a bit short of its non-foldable counterparts, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is still an incredibly useful and versatile device.
