Tried stacking moon photos with my phone last night and got way better detail than I expected

I've been taking single shots of the moon for years with my Samsung and they always come out blurry or overexposed. Last night I decided to try shooting 30 frames in burst mode and stacking them in a free program called Autostakkert. I watched a 10 minute tutorial on YouTube first and honestly thought it would be too complicated. The final image showed craters and ridges I never even knew were there with just my naked eye. It took maybe 20 minutes total from capturing to stacking. Has anyone else had good luck stacking moon shots with just a phone and a cheap tripod?

3 comments

3 Comments

janah831mo ago

Wait, did you shoot those 30 frames handheld or on the tripod? Because if you got good stacking results with just a cheap tripod and burst mode, that actually opens up a whole other way of thinking about this. People always talk about needing a telescope or at least a DSLR for moon shots, but stacking software does a surprisingly good job at fixing the blur that phones introduce. The real trick most people miss isn't just the stacking itself, but making sure your phone doesn't switch to digital zoom or change exposure mid-burst. I've seen folks get frustrated trying this and give up because their phone kept adjusting settings between frames.

ryan_barnes1mo ago

Dude yes, that thing about the phone changing settings mid burst is the biggest pain. I learned that the hard way after like a dozen failed attempts where my shots came out with wild exposure jumps. You gotta lock everything down before you even start. I use a cheap little tripod too, nothing fancy, just one of those tabletop ones with the bendy legs. The stacking software can work miracles on the blur but it absolutely cannot fix the exposure or digital zoom crap. I lost a killer set of shots once because my phone decided to switch to night mode halfway through the burst. Now I just set it to pro mode, lock shutter speed and ISO, and fire away. That plus your tip about keeping the phone from switching zoom is probably the missing piece for a lot of people.

corablack1mo ago

Flip the phone upside down when you're shooting the burst. I read that the lens elements and stabilization systems on phones are actually designed to work better with gravity pushing one way, so flipping it gives you a different tension on the floating lens elements. I tried it with my Pixel last month and got noticeably sharper frames in the burst, like the autofocus was locking on faster and not drifting between shots. Did you lock your exposure and focus before starting the burst or let the phone decide?