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Click the image for the full
size uncropped view.
(3352 x 2532 1.29 MB)
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Instrument |
Takahashi FSQ-106ED @
f/5.0 (530 mm F.L.) Captured at 2.1 arcsec/pixel. Shown at 2.1
and 6.26 arcsec/pixel. |
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Mount |
Losmandy G11 with Gemini L4 v1.0 |
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Camera |
SBIG STF-8300M Self
Guiding Package w/ mono ST-i, using Baader RGB filters. |
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Acquisition Data |
4/6/2014 to
4/25/2014 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDSoft & CCD Commander. |
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Exposure |
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Red |
100 min. (10 x
10 min. binned 1x1 |
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Green
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120 min. (12 x 10 min.
" |
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Blue
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150 min. (15 x 10 min.
" |
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Software & Processing Notes |
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CCDSoft, CCDStack, PixInsight
and Photoshop CS6.
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eXcalibrator v4.25
for (g:r) color balancing, using 144 stars from the SDSS-DR9
database.
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CCDStack to
calibrate, register, normalize, data reject, combine the sub
exposures and to create the RGB
image.
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PixInsight for
gradient removal and initial non-linear stretching.
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PhotoShop for final touch-up.
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Noiseware 5, a
PhotoShop plug-in.
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Comment |
North is to the
top.
A better title for
this image may be "Two of a Kind, but Different".
In the upper right corner is the compact globular cluster is
M53.
Also cataloged as NGC 5024, the cluster was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1775. M53 is in the constellation Coma Berenices, at a
distance of about 58,000 light years from the earth. At about 60,000
light years, the cluster is the most distant from the Galactic
center. M53 contains over 250,000 stars.
At the lower left
corner is the globular cluster NGC 5053. This cluster was discovered
by Frederick William Herschel in 1784. NGC 5053 is about 53,000
light years from Earth. This makes M53 and NGC 5053 relatively close
neighbors. NGC 5053 was originally classified as an open cluster.
More recent spectroscopic studies have confirmed is true nature as a
loosely packed globular cluster.
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