EOS Rebel T7: How to fix inconsistent moon photos

[Entity303]

 Hello,

I have been trying out taking pictures of the moon, and sometimes they come out good, but it is inconsistent.

Above is one of the pictures that came out good.

this sometimes happens where the light gets blurred and no detail except the light comes through. (Granted there was some light cloud cover here that made it blurry)

 this one came out good, but again no detail except pure white. Just before it focuses, it looks like it will get it perfectly with the detail everywhere, then it switches to this.

 these are the settings I’m using in all the shots, with a Canon EOS T7 and an EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III.

[kvbarkley]

A single bright spot in a sea of black can fool the camera's exposure.

Look up the "loony 16" rule and switch to manual.

[jrhoffman75 · Accepted solution]

You should be using manual focus for moon photography. 
You should be using manual exposure with starting setting f/11, ISO 100, 1/100 shutter speed (sometimes called Loony 11 rule).

https://www.lightstalking.com/looney-11-rule/

[Waddizzle]

You should be using a tripod.  Your White Balance should be set for a bright, sunny day.

The Moon is not a bright object.  It’s a ball that is the color of street asphalt, which is covered in many areas with dust that is the color of ashes from a backyard grill.  

This is how Apollo astronauts described it.  We see it as a bright, white object for the ssm e reasons that the a camera does.  The high contrast between the black of space and an object reflecting white sunlight.  Did you know that light from the Sun is white, not yellow?  This is why the Moon appears white, instead of yellow.

Learn how to shoot RAW.