Since the Galaxy S21 series, Scene Optimiser has had the capacity to recognise the moon as an object. This means that the detail enhancement engine, a key feature of Scene Optimiser, is applied to photos of the moon.
When you take a photo of the moon with your Galaxy device, the camera system uses deep learning-based AI, along with multi-frame processing, to enhance details.
https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-galaxy...
The OP has not said anything about turning the relevant options off.
Some technical detail from an older thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35172190
https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-galaxy...
But looking at the terminator during a partial moon -- especially a new moon -- is quite spectacular.
However, for sharing photos or for people new to astronomy, the full moon is a very good target. Craters and shiny mountaintops are difficult to understand at first, but the large mare and Tycho crater are very prominent. Over the course of an hour, you can show them how the moon moves not only in relation to the Earth (because the telescope needs adjusting) but also relative to the background stars. And lastly, they can look up at the moon after they've pulled their eye away from the eyepiece, and still see detail. For that moment on, they'll look at the moon with a sense of familiarity - not just a disk in the sky but now an intricate object which they had one seen in intimate detail.
It’s neat being able to set it up in the back yard and let it go for a few hours, unlike my other rig which takes ages to set up and needs a lot of babysitting. It also packs away into a tidy little case that doesn’t take much room in the car.
On the other hand you’re limited by the small aperture lens and the quality of the camera, compared to a larger rig.
There are rumours of a follow-up model to the S50 but no idea when that will be launched.
But having tried doing telescope astrophotography briefly before and being discouraged by the hassle of heavy gear and complex setup I decided to go for both convenience and price and bought the S50.
It's compact, it's all in-one, Inclues tripod. It have solar filters as part of the kit. It have an app that works great with go-to functions and so on.
The convenience factor makes it a pleasant breeze to use(astrophotography can be a very inconvenient and fiddly hobby) and the price point is hard to beat. A very pleasant entry point to astrophotography, the dwarf 3 and S20 being the other options and I would advice against spending more before you have 200 hours of observations logged(which if you actually like the hobby will not take particularly much time)
Casual shots of the moon, a phone is fine (duh). High quality shots of the moon you need a telescope (duh).
There's something special about seeing the craters with your own eyes and then sharing that with friends. The framing & cropping, zoom, color of the sky are all unique to that experience.
Plus the moon is always looking slightly different each time, with different areas shadowed; fuzzy details one day are sharp the next.
And it's a skill like any other, which feels great to improve day after day.
Look up the other gear from ZWO the maker of the seestar.
Also how do the batteries hold up, or are you powering it off a cable then?
Roboscopes like the Seestar are an all-in-one kit and have internal batteries that last about 3-4 hours (although for the moon you don't need more than a minute or so). The S50 can take uncompressed video, which you can then process as GP describes but, compared to a more powerful setup, the camera is 1920x1080 and uncooled, the framerate is limited to 30fps, and it only has a 50mm aperture.
Its about having a hobby. Let us all be frivolous.
I, however, looking at the side-by-side comparison, would answer, "hell yes."
https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/SMBooks/AstrophotographyV1.p...
We often associate moon with night, and night with needing high ISO, long exposure and wide open aperture. And when you use the auto mode on camera's, that is indeed what you will get because even with telephoto lenses the moon is only a small part of the field of view, so the camera will base its exposure on the dark sky around the moon. That will case an overexposed moon, with a lack of contrast.
(Another issue you'll encounter trying the view or photograph the moon is that when viewed with large amplification, the moon is actually pretty fast and you're going to have to re-aim your camera regularly.)