Best lens for butterflies photography?

I have a nikon d5100 with the 18-55mm lens. I'm interested in another camera lens for butterflies and other things of nature to take. Plus moon shots… What lens do you suggest me getting next?

You will need some kind of macro lens like the Nikkor 60 mm f/2.8 or 105 mm f/2.8 for shooting butterflies

Shooting the moon really requires a telescope and camera adapter.

Even using a 500 mm with 2x tel-extender does not fill the frame of a APS-C sensored dSLR like your D5100

For the butterflies I'd get a dedicated macro lens, the longer the focal length, the better.

Nikon 105mm AF-S G
Nikon Micro 200mm IF-ED
Sigma 180mm APO macro

The lens for moon shots depends on how large you want the moon to be. If you're looking for very large detailed shots of the moon, get a telephoto lens of 400mm or more.

My first thought would be a 105mm VR macro lens, but it turns out most of my own butterfly shots were made with a 300mm lens. See: and you will see that I named the lens in the description of most of the images.

I have been loving my 28-300mm lens on the D300.It would perform the same on your D5100. You can see almost 400 samples here: including a few moon shots that were made at 300mm, such as: or:

See also: and look for lens data.