More goofy moon shots... ?

[MediaMagic]

On these two shots, it appears to me that the right side is within acceptable focus, cleaner than many moonshots I've seen, but the left side seems soft to me. Am I halucinating? nah, the left side appears soft. Any ideas as to why that would be? The left side really made of cheese?

http://mediamagicnw.fotopic.net/show_collection.php?id=51622

I thought perhaps the angle of the light is the culprit.

[lightandlife]

These shots seem to be sharper than the earlier ones.

1. The right side may appear sharper becuase of increased contrast between light and shadow on the right side.

2. The right side may indeed be sharper. In this case, one can rotate the angle of the lens 180 degrees and retake the moon. If the left side is sharper than the right, then 100-400L may be sharper on the right side. If the right side is still sharper, perhaps there are more dust particles on the right side of the moon, in which case available moon shots of other people will also agree.

[cowman345]

I think the perceived softness is in effect due to the angle of incidence of the sunlight striking the moon's surface. You're always going to see more detail where lighting is more horizontal.

-dave-

[lightandlife]

Yeah. To exaggerate the indentation of a coin image, for instance, a flash on the side will yield a sharper image than a frontal flash.

Also a sharper image on one side and a softer image on the other side may be proof that the moon is round?