Photographing the moon

I recently tried to photograph the moon with my Canon 400mm f/5.6 L + Canon 1.4x tc on my 5D MK III and I had such a tough time focusing. I used live view zoomed in 10x and manually focused on the center of the moon. Most of the time I was able to get a very sharp moon while in live view but my images came out soft. I have mirror lock up set, I use a remote switch and I'm mounted on a Gitzo GT3541LS. I don't know if this makes a difference but I'm shooting out my window. Should I shoot with live view? Is my shutter speed too slow? What am I doing wrong? Thanks for the help guys!

This is my latest try from a few nights ago.
f/10
1/200 sec
ISO 100
100% crop

Shooting through a window is a very bad idea.

The Half-Moon will look sharper than the Full-Moon because it is lit obliquely. That throws up lots of shadows that emphasises the details on the surface. The Full-Moon is lit from directly overhead, so there are no visible shadows and it looks dull and flat.

Thanks Frank! I will focus more on non full moons! I do like how the creators cast shadows when it's not a full moon. I was shooting out my window with it open. I think the air is not as clear as I think it is. I tried again last night and I can see while viewing live view the moon would be crisp and then the air would blur up a bit and clear up again. This was happening throughout the time I was photographing the moon.

So I tried to time my shots the best I could when the air was clear. This was my best shot from last night. I think it's my sharpest image of the moon. I did reduce the image a little. At 100% the surface was still not very sharp.

Beauteous!

Shooting through an open window will still cause problems, unless the room is at the same temperature as the outside. Otherwise you'll get convection currents that will distort the image.

hollis_f wrote in post #17766663
Shooting through an open window will still cause problems, unless the room is at the same temperature as the outside. Otherwise you'll get convection currents that will distort the image.

I learned this last winter shooting at some birds while in the comfort of my kitchen. The heat coming out the window distorted all but a couple of the images. Something I never gave a thought to before.

So that's what's causing the hazy air every so often! Thanks again!

hollis_f wrote in post #17766663
Shooting through an open window will still cause problems, unless the room is at the same temperature as the outside. Otherwise you'll get convection currents that will distort the image.

Thanks Benitoite!

Benitoite wrote in post #17766539
Beauteous!