>>3234341>It’s basically the same shot that everyone has taken since the dawn of photography.Yes, this is true to an extent, however:
Even going back a couple of decades digital cameras were in their infancy, most CCD cameras used by amateur astronomers were "home built" with tiny monochrome sensors with low resolution.
The image stacking we have today didn't exist. It was being developed on the internet by individuals working together to produce the free software we have today (registax, deepsky stacker, ieis etc). Yes they are clunky and difficult but very powerful.
An overlooked factor is the optics themselves. Today huge light bucket reflectors and exotic glass refractors are reasonably affordable. If you want to get a little more spendy large astrographs are also quite affordable compared to not that long ago.
The images of the Moon you can capture from your back yard in 1993+25 are amazing really. Pic related is a series of thumbnails taken over 2 years, each one is about "1 day apart". If you look carefully you can see libration (wobble, not all Moons look the same).
