Why Aren’t There Stars In The Moon Landing Photos? -Explained


On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin climbed down from the Eagle lunar module (leaving behind poor Michael Collins) to put the first footprints on the moon. That’s the story, at least. A vocal minority believes that the moon landing was all an elaborate hoax filmed on a sound stage in Hollywood. 

Among their evidence is the fact that photographs and video footage don’t show any stars in the sky. How could the Hollywood producers be so careless in their conspiracy? In fact, there’s a pretty mundane explanation. The camera settings weren’t adjusted to capture them.

If you wanted to take a picture of a friend in direct sunlight, you’d adjust your camera settings in two ways. You’d narrow the aperture, which keeps the light-collecting area on the lens small to avoid letting in too much light, the same reason your pupils constrict in bright sunlight. 

You’d also speed up the shutter speed, so the camera sensor would only let in light for a brief moment. If you wanted to take a picture of that same friend at night, you’d probably slow down the shutter speed and widen the aperture so you could let in enough light for a good shot.

But what if your friend was illuminated at nighttime? Then you’d have to choose what you wanted in your photo. If you wanted to include the stars in the sky, you’d need to make sure your friend stood extra still to avoid blurring the shot while the slow shutter and wide aperture let in enough light. 

If you kept the aperture small and the shutter speed fast, you’d capture a sharp, decently bright picture of your friend, but the sky would be dark because it wouldn’t send enough light into the lens.


That’s the trade-off the Apollo astronauts had to make. The sky on the moon is black as night not because it is night, but because there’s no atmosphere to scatter the daylight the way ours does on Earth.

But make no mistake, there is every bit as much sunlight at midday on the moon as there is on our home planet. That makes the lunar surface incredibly bright. 

The scenery on the moon was the most important thing to capture in the Apollo photographs, so the camera was adjusted to make the most out of that scenery. As a result, the relatively dim stars in the background didn’t register in any of the shots. No hoax, just a trick of the camera lens

15 Comments

  1. Why does the shadow of the flag go in a different direction than the other shadows?

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    1. It´s not the shadow of the flag, it´s the shadow of an object or person to the left, outside the picture.

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    2. because it's night time.. and they wanted to see. so they brought up multiple lights and depending on where you set up these lights it will cast shadows in different places... DUUUHHHHH

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  2. Then how can the Hubble telescope see anything ?

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    1. The Hubble telescope is not on the moon. Nor does it face the sun or the moon when taking readings. It uses a large aperture and a very long exposure while focusing on a small part of space. If you used a telescope on the moon when the sun is shining it would be about as effective as using one during the day on earth. The only advantage you would have is the almost non existent atmosphere.

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    2. Why do you even bother explaining to morons?

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    3. Unknown, how did you get to be such a caring person?

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  3. I think it is a good idea then to send these non believers to use a telescope on the moon, they use too much of our atmosphere here anyway..

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  4. Why is there no shadow from the flag than?

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    1. its there, you just cant see it due to the uneven surface of the moon around where the flag has been placed.

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  5. Replies
    1. its not waving. technically its "floating". the top bar keeps the flag extended in zero/low gravity and the fabric is just kind of wrinkly and floating there.

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  6. We spoofed it all just to fool all of you people! The moon rocks, measurement and monitoring instrumentation left behind, the data from these devices, astronaut training and lives lost, yes it was all done to jack with worthless morons like you folks. We are currently communicating with your bank and lending institutions through chips in your credit cards and those that we placed in your head after birth. NASCAR and Sunday Morning church broadcasts will be slowly terminated using our control of sunspots. We did it all because of you!

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    1. yes. fuckin expensive electric here..

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  7. The space telescopes have shades, screens, to block direct sunlight. Since there is no air to refract sunlight generally, the space telescope can take deep sky photos as long as it can block the photons of direct sunlight.

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