Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com)  ·  Contains:  M 53  ·  NGC 5024  ·  NGC 5053
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M53 and NGC5053, Drew Evans
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M53 and NGC5053

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M53 and NGC5053, Drew Evans
Powered byPixInsight

M53 and NGC5053

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Description

M53 & NGC 5053 in the constellation Coma Berenices

I rarely image star clusters, but with first light on my new GT81, I thought this double globular cluster area would make a good subject to test flat field optics on. This area of sky is riddled with a few clusters and it matched up nicely with the square sensor of the ZWO ASI533MC Pro.

M53 (top right) lies about 58,000 light-years from our Solar System. Like most other globular clusters, it orbits the Milky Way a great distance from the galactic plane, in this case about 60,000 light-years from our galaxy's core. Given that great distance, it is much less spectacular than the grand master star cluster, M13.

NGC 5053, the second of the two globular clusters in this shot, is about 1 degree (2 Moon Widths) southeast of M53. It is a super-faint and loose globular cluster about 53,500 light-years away from us, which puts it somewhat close to M53. Many astronomers doubted its nature as a globular for a long time.

A lot of faint galaxies are visible in the full size image which I have yet to find classification on.

3.83 hour (46 x 300 seconds) exposure with darks and flats

OTA: William Optics Gran Turismo 81 APO Triplet Refractor 480mm F/5.9

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro

Gain: 100

Filter: 2" Baader Neodymium (Moon & Skyglow)

Cooling Temperature: -10 Celsius

Mount: Celestron CGXL with QHY Polemaster alignment

Guidescope: ZWO OAG with Helical Focuser

Auto-guiding: ZWO ASI290MM Mini

Control: ZWO ASIAIR Pro

Calibrated in Astro Pixel Processor⁣

Processed in Pixinsight and Lightroom

Flagstaff, AZ - Bortle 4 skies

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M53 and NGC5053, Drew Evans