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M53 in Coma Berenices
David Cruz · Astromidnight
In Coma Berenices, two globular clusters about 13 billion years old form a triangle with the star Diadem. Far behind them, galaxies hundreds of millions of light-years away peek through.
| Catalogue | Messier, 1777 · NGC 5024 |
| Type | Globular cluster |
| Distance | ≈ 59,000 light-years |
| Field | 134.7′ × 93.0′ |
| Scale | 0.90″ / pixel |
| Orientation | −173° · south up |
| RA (centre) | 13h 13m 22s |
| DEC (centre) | +17° 49′ 43″ |
| Constellation | Coma Berenices |
| Objects in field | M53 · NGC 5053 · Diadem (α Com) · 4 galaxies |
Distances and ages of M53 and NGC 5053 from isochrone fitting (Gontcharov et al. 2024), consistent with NASA's 59,700 light-years for M53. The tidal bridge between the clusters is not visible in the image; the marker sits halfway between them, without catalogue coordinates. Diadem's distance from its parallax in SIMBAD; orbit from the Sixth Catalog of Orbits (Muterspaugh et al. 2015). Galaxy distances calculated from redshift (SIMBAD), with H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc. No real width: the field brings together a star at 58 light-years, clusters at almost 60,000 and far more distant galaxies (at the distance of M53, the field would be about 2,300 × 1,600 light-years). Positions of all objects taken from SIMBAD.
10 h 00 min of light
Each tick is a 240-second exposure. 150 in total, with the camera at −10 °C and gain 100. Calibrated with 50 darks, 50 flats and 50 bias. The Moon stayed below 40 % illumination throughout.
TS-Optics 150mm/6" ONTC f/4 Newtonian (carbon tube)
ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
ZWO AM5
ZWO ASI120MM Mini
TS-Optics Maxfield .95X Coma Corrector · ZWO EAF
Adobe Photoshop · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · ZWO ASIAIR
São Pedro da Gafanhoeira, Évora · 358 m
Bortle 3