The hire car company had already ripped me off to the tune of €350, so it was with gay abandon that I set off down a muddy track in the north-western part of Cyprus, looking for a spot between the trees that was low on light pollution but open enough to take full advantage of the Milky Way’s arc.

And somewhere, somehow, I found that gap. Using the roof of the car and a small stand made for watching films on aeroplanes, I set to with my Pixel 6. The night shots take four minutes, so this was about half an hour of take shot, wait, move phone a few degrees.

There was an extra ten minutes of foul language when I dropped the phone, causing the screen to — quite frankly — shit its pants, but the result is one that I am rather proud of.

The Milky Way arcing above trees in Cyprus

Here’s the thing though: it needn’t have been a Pixel 6. Anything above a Pixel 2 has the astro function. It’s a great place to start.