It's not a great pic, but I like it! Behold, the moon tonight:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

[ManiacJoe]

1. Pretty good job with the exposure

and the focus. Add a little noise reduction and some sharpening, and it cleans up quite well.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Thanks!

My photoshop skills are not very good...

And this is just an ordinary 35mm DSLR.

Normally, my moon pics are just big white blobs.

[ManiacJoe]

8. People forget that the moon is in direct sunlight.

Thus it is very bright in a sea of darkness, which confuses the auto-exposure systems in all cameras when not set to spot metering. An OK starting point for moon shots is the "sunny 16" rule: set the shutter speed to 1/ISO and the aperture to f/16. f/11 might be a bit better starting point for the moon, but you get the idea. Take a few test shots and adjust as necessary.

[Mira]

3. My dear California Peggy -

I have NEVER taken a photo of the moon that even approximates this. I am very impressed.
Looks like "Cosmos Moon" to me (from the movie "Moonstruck", a favorite of mine)
Thank you for posting it.

[handmade34]

4. ain't she pretty!

:)

[Sheepshank]

5. You have that whisp of clouds off to the side

I like the moon and it's various crater hues.

My recent attempts to take a pic of the moon with some ghoulish looking clouds in front of it always fall flat. Maybe if you can figure it out, you can let me know what the trick is lol.

[Celebration]

6. beautiful moon

I was wishing I could capture it myself. You did a good job!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. Thanks for all your great comments, everybody!

I was out on my back deck photographing the sunset, and when I turned to go inside, there was the moon!

Now, I have NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, gotten a decent picture of the moon before.

But I thought, what the hell. The camera was on auto, people, AUTO. I did crop and something else (I forget what else now) in my very basic Photoshop program. That was it.

I was using my Nikon D50. This is now an old camera --they no longer make it.

There you have it. No special techniques, no clever tricks......Just me, my Nikon, and that luscious moon...