M53 vs NGC5053

[Lifs]

Hi folks

Had a great night out last night chasing down some objects I had missed before - including M81 and M82, which I think I got by fluke

Anyroad - I'm unfamiliar with Coma Berenices so I thought I'd spend some time in that area tracking down M53... which I nearly missed through my 28mm eyepiece - it didn't look like much to my eyes!  It wasn't til I got back I realised there's another cluster in the area, NGC5053, so I guess what I'm asking is could I have confused the two, or is it just a case of using lots of power on these objects?

 

[Tweedledee]

The two clusters are barely a degree apart. M53 is mag 7.7 and 13 arcminutes across, NGC5053 is mag 10 and 11 arcminutes across.

 

I think it is highly likely that you that you confused them.

 

With a 28mm eyepiece on your 200p, I'm surprised that you didn't get both in the same field of view and would have then found two fuzzy patches, one much fainter than the other.

 

Good luck next time and try some higher magnifications and you should start resolving some stars.

 

Here's some info and a nice picture showing both...

 

http://astropixels.com/globularclusters/M53-01.html

[+Bino-viewer]

I must have a go at these two.

NGC 5053 looks to be very faint though.....very low surface brightness.

One for the next dark sky session (not Darley Abbey )

 

[Lifs]

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

It sounds as though I ought to spend a little more time in that area then - and try to get them both in the FoV for comparison... Just need some clear skies now then!