What are the best settings for taking pictures of the moon using a Nikon D5000?

I'm using a Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G ED VR lens.

The exactly same settings you would use shooting in bright sun here on earth.

1/ISO @ f/16 or some reciprocal setting.

I would use 1/500th second at between f/8 and f/11 at ISO 200 as a starting point. Of course you will have to use the manual settings to do this

I'm sure had you thought about it a little longer you would have remembered that the same sun shines on the earth as the moon, so the same exposures apply.

Start by using the sunny 16 rule since the moon is in direct sunlight.

That is ISO100 f/16 @ 1/125 of a second.

That is a good starting place, but my experience says that you might want to under expose about 2/3 of a stop because the moon is a lot brighter than middle grey.

Another good moon photography tip is to photograph it a sunset a day or two before the moon is full and again at sunrise a day or two after the moon is full. This will give you some foreground in your shot.

Here is an example of what I mean about photographing at sunset:
http://www.altitudestock.com/image/I0000Gw9kBAm5sfA

Manual mode.