M53 & NGC 5053 RGB (Randy Lindstrom)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com) · Contains: HD114762 · HD114881 · M 53 · NGC 5024 · NGC 5053

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M53 & NGC 5053 RGB

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M53 & NGC 5053 RGB

German astronomer, Johann Elert Bode discovered M53 in 1775. This 220 light year diameter ball of stars (in the upper right) is 60,000 light-years away, one of the most distant globular clusters from Earth within our galaxy.

Globular clusters are much older and larger than open clusters, such as NGC 5053 (to the lower left) so they are generally expected to contain more elderly, red stars and fewer young, blue stars. But Messier 53 has a surprising number of a type of star called blue stragglers. Blue stragglers appear to be brighter and more youthful than they should be. These unusual objects are probably formed by close encounters, possibly collisions, between stars in the crowded centers of globular clusters like M53.

A tidal bridge-like structure appears to connect M53 with its diffuse neighbor NGC 5053 about 6000 light years away. It suggests the pair may have interacted in the past — a possibly unique occurrence within the Milky Way as there are no other known binary clusters within the galaxy.

Sources: Wikipedia, Universe Today

NOVAC

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
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Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
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Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4425127
PixInsight job	OAQHGASCETOME9XVPM49U57XM1E7CHUW
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	13h14m32s.75
RA (top/left)	13h17m44s.38
RA (top/right)	13h10m19s.85
RA (bottom/right)	13h11m22s.95
RA (bottom/left)	13h18m44s.45

Dec (center)	+17°59′52″.2
Dec (top/left)	+18°47′49″.4
Dec (top/right)	+18°27′20″.10
Dec (bottom/right)	+17°11′43″.4
Dec (bottom/left)	+17°32′02″.5

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M53 & NGC 5053 RGB

M53 & NGC 5053 RGB

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Image Index:

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M53 & NGC 5053 RGB

M53 & NGC 5053 RGB

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