M53 in Coma Berenices 23rd March 2020 @ 01:54 UT
A compact ball of stars nearly 60,000 light years away. I couldn't get the colour balance right. Hence, we are very blue!
Image: 15 seconds x 40 frames (600 seconds total), gain 6584, bin 2x2, Raw 14, black level 99, camera temperature 9.5 deg C, 1 dark. Stacked in SharpCap Pro 3.2.6248.0. The image was stacked and adjusted in SharpCap. The image was scaled down and cropped in GIMP.
Image: 15 seconds x 40 frames (600 seconds total), gain 6579, bin 1x1, Raw 14, black level 99, camera temperature 8 deg C, 1 dark. Stacked in SharpCap Pro 3.2.6248.0. The image was stacked and adjusted in SharpCap. The image was scaled down and cropped in GIMP.
I was not happy with my first try as I could not get the image adjusted to my liking. For the second attempt I switched to 1x1 binning and got a better colour balance. I couldn't sharpen the image as Sharpcap kept crashing (just disappeared).
Equipment: Celestron CPC-800 at F5.9, Alt-Az mount, Altair Astro Hypercam 294C Pro Cooled (fan), Celestron Focuser, CPWI controlled remotely via Microsoft RDP and ASCOM.
Astrometry: M53 58,000 light years distance, magnitude 7.6
Charles Messier discovered M53 in 1777.
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