Perhaps these astronauts were specifically watching stars and were on the night side and had darkened out the interior of their vessel. I believe the different scenarios for seing/not seeing stars that I outlined above combined with different astronauts, events and what they've said explains it.
Also it is worth nothing that we're talking about soundbytes picked from interviews from pilots and engineers, who may not be very skilled in talking to a TV camera and not actors or spokesmen etc.
Does my watching stars outside + lit ipad scenario sound implausible?
From Quora:
"Several Command Module pilots did mention seeing stars while orbiting the lunar far side.
On the early flights, though, much of their time in orbit around the far side was spent concentrating on technical equipment and several different scientific experiments which they had been tasked to perform during the flight and their time around the darkside; sometimes all they had time for were quick glimpses out the CM windows. Of course, that changed as the later flights became of longer duration, with the LM and the astronauts staying on the lunar surface for days, giving the CMP pilots a fair amount of time orbiting the darkside.
In his book “Carrying The Fire”, CMP Michael Collins (Apollo 11) wrote of looking out the windows during some free time he had while on the farside. He turned the CM’s interior lights down low for a better view, and reported seeing only inky blackness where the darkened lunar landscape lay beneath him…but said he could tell where the moon's limb ended, because beyond it, he could see a galaxy of stars; a rim of stars beyond and all around the moon's darkened edge.
He said it was an eerie but beautiful sight… “like being alone on a skiff in the middle of the Pacific ocean, on the darkest, clearest night you could ever imagine.”
Ken Mattingly, on Apollo 16, spent time orbiting the lunar far side during Earthshine, which is many times brighter than the moonshine we experience here on Earth.
He said it was fantastic…and likened it to flying over a snow-covered landscape lit by a soft blue-white glow.
“The detail was amazing. The Earthshine was so bright I could see every crater, rille and crevice. I felt as if I were flying above Antarctica…flying above snow-covered fields and valleys.”
and the comment following comment is quite good too "
Why would they? They were there to visit the moon, and when they’re on the far side, they’re seeing a part of the moon no other human has ever seen. Why would they mention the stars, which look exactly the same from the moon as they do from earth?"
Plenty of mentionings of stars in Collin's book mentioned above, for instance when using a sextant.
Time lapse photograph of the sky taken when and where?
I believe most photography / CGI and similar experts today agree that for instance because the shadows on the photographs from the moon are so sharp it is prof that the light was very far away and strong and faking that in a studio. Also there is no proof of multiple light sources being used.
For the same reason that stars can't be seen or photographed from planet earth in daytime (they then gradually become visible at dusk) explains why stars aren't visible on the moon.
Stars are probably visible to the human eye on the moon if one shields them from the sun reflecting from the surface and let them adjust.
To photograph the moon/lunar lander/astronauts (all brightly lit by the sun) and stars together is as anyone with even pretty basic photography knowledge impossible.
Here are photographs taken of stars from the moon:-
