Jan 28
Day 8 (January 26 2026)
in order of appearance: the moon, m46, m47, m48, leo triplet, winnecke 4, m53, m49, m58
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from Austria
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Colombia
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Austria
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
Day 8 (January 26 2026)
in order of appearance: the moon, m46, m47, m48, leo triplet, winnecke 4, m53, m49, m58
M53 // Andreas Junge
M53, NGC 5024 globular cluster
Coma Berenices Constellation
Distance: 58.710 ly
April 14, 2023 -Montcada i Reixac
Blue Stragglers’ Cluster
Messier 53
Messier 53 is a globular star cluster located about 60,000 light years away towards the constellation Coma Berenices. Globular clusters are a type of star cluster containing tens of thousands of stars bound together by gravity. They’re typically found on the edges of galaxies, and over 150 are found in the Milky Way alone.
Globular star clusters are older and larger than open star clusters, and usually contain stars born around the same time. Usually, this means the clusters contain more old, red stars. Messier 53 is unusual for its high number of blue stragglers, a type of rejuvenated star that appears bluer and brighter than its age would suggest. It’s thought that this may be the result of stellar collisions in the dense core of globular clusters.
Image and information from ESA.
M53 // Enrico Benatti
M53 (NGC 5024, top right) and NGC 5053 (bottm left) // Jochen Schnichels
M53 (lower left) and NGC 5053 (right) // AnaTa