Saturn and M53

[lhuchison]

Really good sky last night at last! so i thought i'd check out Saturn but as i only had till 11.30 (up early) my views were through a bush so not brilliant.

I thought i'd try for M53 which is in the southeast, what a nightmare to find! my finder scope couldn't pick it up so i ended up pointing my Telrad to the approx position then searching about.

When i finally found it ,it was a faint fuzzy, no wonder it was so hard to find. Glad i found it though. It also give me a chance to test out my new edgeHD. It definitely works better with the WO 2in diagonal than the stock celestron one

Also just had my bobs knobs delivered so I'm fitting them today and star testing tonight. Hope we all get clear skies .

[crashtestdummy]

M53 is really easy from a dark site but i can imagine it would be harder from a mpre urban location.theres another glob just below and to the left which is much much harder

[lhuchison]

i'll try for that tonight but given my LP not much chance i think! Just need a good bright star to collimate my Bobs knobs.

[Double Kick Drum]

M53 is really easy from a dark site but i can imagine it would be harder from a mpre urban location.theres another glob just below and to the left which is much much harder

Yeah, NGC 5053 is very difficult. I haven't managed it in semi-rural skies after several attempts.

M53 on the other hand is quite nice but may be drowned out a bit in light polluted skies.

Happy hunting!

[crashtestdummy]

i couldnt find 5053 from a dark sky site last month but i think i may have been looking too close to m53

[scarp15]

Once you have located it then it will benefit a little by going to a higher magnification but it is quite a tightly compact Globular. Certainly a dark sky for this object helps a lot to.