Nikon d3100 moon shots?

I recently bought a nikon d3100, and I'm wanting to get a good moon shot. I have a 55-200 mm vr lens. What are the best settings like the f stop, are the best to use. Any tips would help.

The proper exposure of the moon is the same as the one when shooting in daylight. 1/ISO of the film or sensor @ f/16, called the sunny 16 rule. Remember, the same sun light falls on the moon as the earth

Shoot with your camera in the manual mode so the meter does not get fooled by the night sky

If you want a clear shot of moon, just try to shot at night and you will get clear snap of moon…

Ace's approach works. What I tend to do is switch camera to center or spot meting, set iso to 400, aperture around f8 and that should get you enough shutter speed to shoot handheld.

I recently did this shot:

with these settings:

Exposure 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 500 mm
ISO Speed 640

Your moon shots will improve if you can find an area with little street and other lights.

There are many ways to reach a goal in photography. Just switch your camera to manual mode and practice using different combinations of shutter and aperture settings.

I took this image on October 22nd of last year.

Taken at 1/2500 @ f5.6 ISO 250 hand held @ 300mm

Shoot manual mode.
A starting point is:
ISO: 200 (be sure Auto ISO is off)
aperture: f/8
shutter speed: 1/160
You may need to adjust your shutter speed or aperture to get the exposure right. Put your image review on highlight mode so you can tell if you're overexposed.

Set you focusing to single point, center, and focus on the moon.

Turn sharpening off. This should be done in an editing program as in-camera sharpening will be too harsh on the edge of the moon.

Use a tripod. VR helps if hand held, but you'll get better results if you use a tripod.

You'll find that a focal length of 200mm isn't enough. Even 500mm is a bit shy of what you need.

An example using the above settings:
https://picasaweb.google.com/...1976664066