NGC 5053 in Coma Berenices

NGC 5053 in Coma Berenices is a globular cluster with

relatively few stars.  NGC 5053's low metallicity, elements

heavier than hydrogen, suggests that NGC 5053 may

have been stripped from the Sagittarius Dwarf

Spheroidal Galaxy.  NGC 5053 contains

only 3 500 stars and is 57 kly from us.

Hover over the picture for an annotated version

Date:  19 May 2022

FOV:  cropped to 68' × 45'; the angular size of M53 is about 10'

Telescope:  Stellarvue SVX102T + SFFX-1 (714mm, f/7)

Guiding:  ZWO ASI120MM mini mono guide camera,

Stellarvue F050G 50mm guide scope

Computer:  ASIair pro Raspberry Pi

Mount:  iOptron CEM40

Camera:  ZWO ASI071MC Pro Cooled (-10°C) Color CMOS with gain 240

Pixel size:  4.78 μm

Resolution:  1.335 arcsec/pixel

Filter:  Baader Light Pollution Moonglow filter with IR cut

Stacking:  Fifteen 240 second frames using Deep Sky Stacker

Total Time:  1 hour

Processing:  Pixinsight – SPCC, DBE, BlurXT, NoiseXT, Mask, GHS, HST

PM Mask + GHS + HST, Sat, DynCrop/Scale

Location:  Darling Hill Observatory near Vesper, NY