M53 Another globular cluster similar in appearance to the Hercules cluster. I took this shot to hopefully complete my RASC Deep sky Certificate. I otherwise would have been trying for galaxies since this is Galaxy season. This one is located in the Coma Berenices constellation which is rich in galaxies. Coma Berenices is Latin for quot;Berenice's hairquot;. She was a Queen of Egypt and was famous for sacrificing her hair in hopes that the gods would return her husband Ptolemy III safely. Apparently it worked so well that she got her husband back safely and a Constellation named after her hair as well.br/ M53 is a metal-poor globular cluster. Apparently it has many first generation stars. These are the stars that formed from the hydrogen rich / metal poor dust that was around in the early universe. As the universe ages, stars come and go converting hydrogen into heavier elements in their nuclear furnaces. This is why the stars and dust of the later universe are said to have metal. Astronomers consider any element heavier than hydrogen to be a metal -- this is in contrast to the common understanding which considers elements in the upper right corner of the periodic table to be metals.br/ What does this mean? My guess is that it was a Galaxy that formed from dust that remained undisturbed during the early part of the universe. The Galaxy finally formed at a later time, only to be eaten up by our milky way which stripped it's outer arms leaving the center as a globular cluster. What's your guess?br/Imaging telescope / lensbr/ William Optics Apochromatic 81/478 mm gt81br/ Imaging camerabr/ ZWO Optical ASI 1600 MM Pro (CMOS)br/ Mountbr/ Equatorial Losmandy GM811Gbr/ Guiding telescope / lensbr/ Astromania Refractor 60/240 mm Astromania 60br/ Guiding camerabr/ ZWO Optical ASI 178 MC (CMOS)br/ Filtersbr/ ZWO Optical Red 1.25quot;br/ ZWO Optical Green 1.25quot;br/ ZWO Optical Blue 1.25quot;br/ Accessoriesbr/ Focal reducer Wiliams Optical 0.8br/ Processed withbr/ PixInsight (Pleiades Astrophoto) 73.0.3683.10br/ Lights (filter Red)29 x 180 secbr/ Lights (filter Green)17 x 180 secbr/ Lights (filter Blue)22 x 180 secbr/ Total lights integration time3:24 hours