Phone photos of lights at night: settings that work

Most phone photos of a moving light are a blur, and that is fine; the metadata still helps. To get something usable:

1. Turn off the flash. It lights up dust and bugs and makes "orbs".
2. Lock focus on infinity (tap a distant streetlight, then hold to lock) so the camera stops hunting.
3. Use night mode or a 1–3 second exposure if the object is slow (satellite, planet). For anything fast, use video instead.
4. Brace the phone on a wall, car roof or fence. Shaky long exposures turn one light into a squiggle, which fools everyone.
5. Keep something in the frame for scale and direction: a roofline, a tree, a pole.
6. Upload the original file. Screenshots strip the time, exposure and camera model we use to check it.

For video, keep the object in the frame for at least 10 seconds and say the time and direction out loud; it ends up in the audio track.