Cropping the moon

Last night I took a tripod out back and tried to take an in focus picture of the moon. 

The original picture…

And a crop…

 

I learned that the right equipment is a necessity.  I used the tripod to get a solid base so I could use the live view of the camera and a 10x magnification to get a sharp focus.  I was amazed at 2 things that even with the tripod weighted from below I could still see the camera shake every time I touched the lens to adjust the focus.  I now know why solid tripods are so expensive.  The second amazing part of the night was that when zoomed in on the live view screen I could actually see the moon moving.  It was subtle and slow but I could see movement.  Crazy.

 

Cropping 90% of the picture out does no go well for any photographer.  The lens that I used was a 28-135 mm lens and the moon was small last night.  If I had a choice and all the money in the world I would have used a 400mm lens with a 2x converter and a very sturdy tripod to get a larger and crisper version of the moon.

 

At least I am still trying to improve.