People Just Found Out How Bad Smartphones Are at Photographing the Moon

lunareclipsepixels

Most people use their smartphones as their go-to snapshot camera these days, and the impressive image quality of the latest models is great for recording everyday memories. The small sensor and lens do have their limitations, though, and quite a few people found that out last night when they pulled out their smartphones to photograph the supermoon lunar eclipse.

As the world oohed and aahed at the ultra-large eclipse, the Internet became flooded with poor quality smartphone photos showing the blood moon as a pixelated blob of color. Both famous journalists and the general public alike bemoaned their failed photos:

Fox reporter Heather Hegedus hopes smartphone cameras will be up to the task by the next supermoon lunar eclipse in 2033:

Newer iPhones managed to capture barely recognizable closeups of the blood moon:

…but older iPhones struggled to keep up:

The blurry blobs in the photos are reminiscent of NASA’s early photos of Pluto when we could only photograph it with the Hubble space telescope:

Here’s what people had to say:

While the vast majority of smartphone snapshots from the eclipse didn’t turn out well, some did — namely, those who attached their phones to telescopes and other serious lenses to shoot at a much greater focal length:

Needless to say, if you’re planning on capturing your own photographic memento the next time a lunar eclipse comes around, you might want to invest in either some serious camera gear or a powerful telescope instead of relying on the camera on your phone.

(H/T Mashable)

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