BEAUTY: 
BRAGGING RIGHTS: A beautiful sight
HOW EASY IS IT TO SEE? Best with a rich-field telescope
BEST TIME TO SEE IT: Spring (in Sextans)
TYPE: Galaxy DISCOVERED: 1787 by William Herschel
A lenticular galaxy. Caldwell 53 is a nearly edge-on galaxy, but if you compare it to NGC 4565 you’ll notice something missing: Caldwell 53 has no central dust lane! This is a lenticular galaxy—it’s as featureless as an elliptical galaxy, but disk-shaped like a spiral galaxy.
Start from Lambda Hydrae. To find this galaxy, start at Lambda Hydrae, then move about 5 degrees north-northwest (see chart). In good, dark skies Caldwell 53 should be visible in binoculars. Its spindle-like shape will be visible even at low power.
X-ray source. The image above is a false-color rendering in which gold/yellow represents visible light and blue represents x-rays. The x-rays emitted from the core are evidence of a supermassive black hole.
