If you ever want to see what talent, dedicated and an extraordinary amount of patience looks like you need only stare at this incredible image of the moon.

Photographer and Instagrammer Andrew McCarthy (@cosmic_background) took almost 50,000 photos using two separate cameras to create the stunning overall shot.

The stars and dark side of the moon were captured using a Sony a7 II mirrorless camera, while a dedicated astro camera, the ZWO ASI224MC, was used to capture the lighter side.

"The lit side of the moon was processed using 25 'tiles' that were stitched together in Photoshop," McCarthy explained to PetaPixel.

"Each tile was a stack of the best 50 per cent of 2,000 images captured with the ZWO."

With that in mind, you can just imagine the amount of painstaking work it took to also stitch the rest of the picture together.

McCarthy explains more of the process on a Reddit post, where you can also find download links to high resolution versions of the 9000 x 9000px final image.

He is also selling prints of the image on his online store, alongside others in his Astrocreativity and Astrophotography ranges. We particularly like his stunning image of the blood moon too.