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HI Mark.

The Moon can be a difficult subject for everyone. Not only is it a very bright and contrasty subject but its final image potential is subject to the Atmosphere ... Rule of thumb in any Astro photography is simple ... if the Stars are twinkling then forget taking pictures!

Twinking is caused by the warm and cool layers of air in the atmosphere, as they slide on each other it causes light to shift resulting in 'Twinkling Stars' when this happens its almost imposible to get a clear sharp shot.

If you look at the moon through a telescope at say minimum x50 power, you will see very clearly the affects of the air layers moving as the image goes in and out of focus. A cool night folowing a cool day normally produces the results, but not allways, lol.

Shoot everything on Manual and Auto WB.

Another problem is focusing through a dSLR viewfinder. In the 35mm days a split screen or ground glass viewfinder helped, with todays digital it can be a little hit an miss. Fortunalty you can take many many shots and adjust based on what the LCD shows you.

Long lenses are also prone to detail robbing vibrations cause by everythng, mirror slap, wind, touching the shutter button. If you have mirror lock up or delayed shutter it helps, also a remote release helps too. If not then high shutter speeds may help but the more you crank up the ISO the less detail obtained, especially when you are using only about 22% of the sensor area with a 500mm lens.

Thought this may help.