In this article, I've documented my experience photographing the moon, because with the right settings, you can achieve beautiful results with almost any camera.

Impressions

Setup for Moon Photography

Quick Start Guide

The quick start guide to try your hand at moon photography and achieve results quickly.

Use a tripod and set the camera to self-timer for 10 seconds. Use an aperture of f/10, the fastest possible shutter speed, and an ISO between 100 and 400. Focus manually on the moon, although modern cameras can achieve good results with autofocus. This should give you usable results. It doesn't matter which camera you use; even a mobile phone or a compact camera can produce good results.

Camera

Camera Settings

Default Settings

To photograph the moon, keep in mind that it is very bright, so a shorter exposure time is sufficient. To utilize the lens's maximum sharpness, you should close the aperture slightly. The exact amount depends on the lens model, as the point of maximum focus varies for each lens, but generally, apertures of f/6 or higher are good. Don't stop down too much, as this will negatively impact image quality due to diffraction! The exposure time should generally be as short as possible to avoid camera shake, but atmospheric movement can also cause blurring. Opinions differ on whether or not to use image stabilization, but I would argue that it depends on the tripod used, the wind, and the surface. If the tripod is too flexible, it will continue to wobble for several seconds after you release the camera. A soft surface, such as a wooden deck, can cause any movement of the photographer to vibrate the camera, and yes, the wind can be strong enough to make my camera vibrate on the tripod.

Therefore, I recommend trying it out yourself, or if in doubt, taking a few photos with and a few without, and then simply choosing the best ones. It's better to take a few more photos and go home with better results than with a half-full memory card and a fully charged spare battery ;).

Pixel Shift Function

Anyone who owns a modern camera like the Panasonic Lumix G9 II can use the Pixel Shift function to get a 100MP photo from a 25MP sensor by taking up to 16 images with different sensor positions. The goal is to capture each pixel with a different sensor pixel, thereby reducing defective pixels, noise, and color shifts. This way, you can generate a very sharp, high-resolution photo of the moon directly from the camera with minimal effort.

Lens

Yes, the lens is actually the most technically important component here, because a lot of zoom and sharp optics are required.

Filters

UV Filters

Yes, anyone photographing the moon should use a UV filter, because the 

Image Post-Processing

Developing the RAW Images 

Stacking the Images

If you don't have the option of pixel-shifting the images