During a press conference weeks after the mission, Armstrong indeed stated he never saw the stars by eye from the lunar surface, neither on the lit side of the Moon. Michael Collins also backed it up, saying he couldn’t recall seeing any stars while orbiting in the commander module. (Apollo 11 Post Flight Press Conference, 1969) As the landing took place at lunar daytime, the faint light of the stars were weaker than the sun. The two astronauts got used to the bright environment surrounding them, thus it was impossible for them to notice the dim stars. The camera the astronauts were using was set to record the foreground in details, rather than the background. Hoax believers however are convinced that the real reason behind this is that NASA decided to exclude stars from the photos as there was high risk astronomers and scientists could identify whether the photos were taken from the Moon or Earth using their celestial position.
As reported by astronomer Anna Ross from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, these facts are not that difficult to debunk with scientific evidence and explanation. Responding to the most discussed issue among the hoax believers, in which the concern is raised that the stars are ‘missing’ in the night sky in all the photos. She suggests trying to take a photo with any device at night, it will have the same result which is: starts in the black sky will not be visible at all.
In more depth, scientists have explained that all settings were daylight exposures as the sun provided a very strong light on the surface, therefore Armstrong and Aldrin’s white space suits became extremely reflective. In line with Rick Fienberg, the press officer of the American Astronomical Society, the short explanation is “The exposure on the astronauts’ cameras was too short to capture the space suits and the moon’s surface while also capturing the comparatively dimmer stars.”