NGC 5053 - Globular Cluster in Coma Berenices
Date Posted: 11/28/2023
Date Taken: 3/12/2019
Scope: Planewave CDK 12.5 f/8, 2541mm
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 with Astrodon Tru-Balance E-Series Gen2 filters
Temp: -25C
Mount: Losmandy Titan
Guiding: On-axis via ONAG-XM and SX UltraStar at 2541mm. FocusLock real-time focus for focusing.
Exposure: LRGB, 58:32:30:45. Luminance 15min unbinned; RGB 5min binned 2x2.
Calibrated and Stacked with CCDStack2; RGB combine and DDP with MaximDL. Processed with CS4.
NGC 5053 is a sparse, relatively low-mass globular cluster in Coma Berenices.It is considered one of the most medal-poor globulars in our galaxy. It is chemically more similar to the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy than the Milky Way halo, leading some to believe that it was stripped from the dwarf galaxy. It is about 57,000 light years away.
I shot this in back 2019. I didn't have a lot of signal, and the first quarter moon led to a noisy image. I had started to process it, but somehow forgot about it, and only recently discovered my mistake. I now refer to it as The Lost Cluster.