Click here for a higher-resolution image

A total eclipse of the moon was visible at my location (NJ, USA) around 10 pm local time (EDT) on 27 Sept 2015. During the day I noticed (using star-charting software) that at the time of deepest totality (about 10:47 pm EDT) the moon would be near a number of fairly small and dim galaxies in the constellation Pisces. Might it be possible, I wondered, to capture the full moon and some galaxies at the same time, a feat that is impossible (due to the extreme brightness of a full moon) except during a total lunar eclipse? To do this I used a short stack of 9 30-second exposures leading up to 10:47 followed by a 4-second exposure at 10:47. The 30-second stack was combined with the 4-second exposure using HDR techniques.

Eleven galaxies are visible near the moon in this image; these are labeled in the high-resolution image (see link above) along with each galaxy's visual magnitude and distance (MLy = million light years, BLy = billion light years). The two brightest galaxies (but still quite small and non-descript) are NGC 78 and PGC 1306 near the center of the image. There is one galaxy visible (ASK 028745.0) only 75" away from the moon's limb. The most distant galaxy in the image (at 1.7 billion light years) is about 45,000,000,000,000,000 times farther away than the moon.