Tell me about realistically photographing the moon. Please?

[acatalephobic]

I have a tutorial on it, but no matter what I do it always seems to end up with with some measure of majesty around the moon itself. i.e. I don't necessarily mind that, I'd just rather have a crisp shot with the edges of the moon visible...preferably with some discernible degree of detail in the dark spots on the moon. I use a tripod and the longest exposure my camera allows, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Any tips?

[Marvo]

Have you actually tried using a short exposure? I can with almost complete certainty tell you, that that is your problem.

[Adam]

You're over exposing the shot. You should need any more than about 2/3 seconds on the moon to be honest. What camera/lens do you have? This would make a huge difference

[acatalephobic]

Thank you guys! I don't know why I didn't realize that the long exposure was letting too much light in; it should've been common sense to me. Duhrrr. Maybe it was all the pot smoking I did during the time I took formal photography courses... I still enjoy the shots with majesty, but now I'm getting closer to what I was aiming for: Thank you again!

[Adam]

Let us see some updates