system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why is it that in every video/picture taken on the Moon we can't see vast amounts of stars? Its always just black and I would expect that since there is no atmosphere to obstruct vision, we should see tons?
gpt
The surface of the moon is actually very bright in comparison to most stars, there's a lot of surface area with light being reflected. When you take a photo, you set the exposure time (how long light can fall on the detector apparatus) so that you can see everything nicely - too much time, and the moon's surface would be all washed out with no details because the detector is saturated. Since the stars are dimmer, they'd need a longer exposure time for the detector receive significant light from them, but longer times aren't used since the moon itself is the object of the photograph.

If you set out to photograph stars from the moon, you could do so easily enough and could indeed see plenty as long as you set your camera up for the task.