How do you take good pictures at night?

[euphoria]

I have a Kodak EasyShare Z650 digital camera and my dad and I were trying to get a nice picture of the moon. They didnt turn out so great. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on how to get good night shots. We did use a tri-pod and we were messing around with the PASM mode but we don't really know what any of that stuff means... :blush2:
So, any help is appreciated.

[Broncosaurus]

The problem people have shooting the moon is that a cameras light meter sees dark the sky rather than the bright moon, so all attempts come out overexposed. To be successful, you need to have 100% manual control over the exposure. I'm not familiar with your camera, but if you can set it to around 1/500 & f/5.6, you would be in the area of a good exposure.

[Ronnoco]

This is from a pocket camera. I balanced it on a railing and shot at about 1/200 sec at about f2.8. It is not exposed perfectly either, but for something to add into a night shot, it fits the bill and it would blend in well without looking like it was an addition.

Ronnoco

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

PASM are different modes for different settings you want to control as a user.. i believe the P is automatic where the camera will take care of all settings , A is usually aperature priority mode where you will control the aperature of the pic, S is shutter speed where you control the shutter speed only and the camera controls the rest, and M is manual where you have total control of all settings .. this is what you want to use to get the settings that have been suggested ... your manual will give more info of how to achieve these settings and how to control each ...