Why not? Shoot for the moon.

Have you ever tried to take a photo of a super moon, blood moon or just the plain old moon with your smartphone, and all you got with a giant yellow blob? You’re not alone. But I’ve got good news for all you amateur lunar photographers.

Our friends at Samsung designed a new camera system for the Galaxy S21 Ultra that lets you take epic photos of the moon in any phase, thanks to the new Zoom Lock feature and some behind-the-scenes magic.

The process is simple. All you need is a tripod with a smartphone holder, a Galaxy S21 Ultra and a clear sky. I set up my tripod behind an open window with a straight line-of-sight to the moon, then opened up the camera and used pinch and zoom to frame the moon where I wanted it.

When you engage the manual zoom, a small box opens up in the corner of your screen with a tiny box within it. That’s the Zoom Lock. Anything within the inner box will engage additional stabilization to ensure a steady shot — even at 100x zoom (though I got great results and 30x and 50x, too). Then it’s just a matter of autofocusing the moon and clicking the shutter button. For even sharper pictures, you can use the timer to take a photo after you touch the screen, thus eliminating any additional camera shake.

Finally, I know I said you should shoot on a clear night, but if you want really cool, moody moon photos, wait until a small cloud rolls by and click the shutter when it just passes in front of the moon (but doesn’t completely cover it).

Check out the video above to see my step-by-step setup and some awesome moon photos I made with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Hopefully, this will inspire you to shoot our closest planetary satellite more than once in a blue moon.

Visit verizon.com to order your Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G.

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