How long should I image the Heart Nebula with the Origin from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 1 h 13 min of total integration for a solid image, or 4 h 52 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 18 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin?

At the default 10 s sub length, 439 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 138 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Heart Nebula?

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 1 h 13 min to 37 min.

How long to image the Heart Nebula with the Celestron Origin

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 1 h 13 min (439 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Heart Nebula. A quick look takes 18 min; a showpiece 4 h 52 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 23 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is skyglow, so a darker site or a filter helps more than longer subs. In this scope's field it is just over the frame at 1.2×.

Heart Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	5 min28 subs	18 min109 subs	1 h 12 min434 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	5 min30 subs	20 min119 subs	1 h 19 min475 subs
Bortle 3Rural	6 min35 subs	23 min138 subs	1 h 32 min551 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	8 min47 subs	31 min185 subs	2 h 03 min737 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	11 min65 subs	43 min258 subs	2 h 52 min1,031 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	18 min110 subs	1 h 13 min439 subs	4 h 52 min1,753 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	33 min196 subs	2 h 10 min782 subs	8 h 41 min3,128 subs
Bortle 8City	55 min329 subs	3 h 39 min1,316 subs	15 h5,262 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	1 h 42 min614 subs	6 h 49 min2,454 subs	27 h9,815 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 35 min of run time. The Origin’s battery (rated about 6 h) should cover it; a power bank still keeps the phone running the app alive. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time, and 30% off the battery for a November night.)

portable power station 300W AC outletRuns the supplied 12 V adapter in the field; the dew shield and heater are already built in.
Amazon UK Amazon US Jackery UK
red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
Amazon UK Amazon US
hand warmers long lastingAir-activated packs give hours of heat for the person; winter nights are long and you spend most of them standing still.
Amazon UK Amazon US

Affiliate links: the retailer pays us a small commission and you pay the same price. These are search links to the named product, not endorsements of a particular listing; check the listing matches your model.

Everything that fits the Origin →

How it frames

The Heart Nebula is 60′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.2×. Point at the part you want; the edges will fall outside the frame.

Longer subs

10 s auto subs (15 s with the Nebula Filter); manual 1 to 30 s on the alt-az mount, longer only with the EQ wedge, and 60 s and up needs the StarSense Autoguider too. Time for a solid image by sub length:

Sub length	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
10 s	23 min138 subs	43 min258 subs	2 h 10 min782 subs
15 s	21 min85 subs	41 min165 subs	2 h 09 min515 subs
30 s	19 min39 subs	39 min79 subs	2 h 07 min254 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	23 min138 subs	43 min258 subs	2 h 10 min782 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	21 min129 subs	28 min166 subs	54 min326 subs

The Origin has no built-in dual-band filter. Filter drawer takes 1.25-inch or 2-inch filters, including dual-band; Celestron sells an optional Nebula Filter. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.

About the Heart Nebula

A degree-wide hydrogen cloud shaped like a heart, with the bright Melotte 15 cluster and pillars at its centre. Dual-band, and a wide field or mosaic.

IC 1805, Sh2-190 · Emission nebula in Cassiopeia · magnitude 6.5 · 60′ · best in Oct, Nov, Dec. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.

Emission nebulae glow in a few narrow lines, mostly hydrogen-alpha (deep red) and doubly ionised oxygen (teal). A dual-band filter passes those lines and blocks most skyglow, which is why it cuts the time needed from a suburban sky so dramatically. Use it. From a genuinely dark site the gain is smaller because there is less skyglow to block, and read noise becomes the limit, which is where longer subs (EQ mode, or Expert Mode on a Vespera) earn their keep.

Stars lose colour through a dual-band filter; a short broadband stack blended in fixes that if you care.

About the Celestron Origin

The first-generation Origin: a 6-inch f/2.2 RASA in a smart package and the fastest system here by a wide margin. Superseded by the Mark II in late 2025 and no longer sold new; Celestron offers a camera upgrade to the Mark II sensor.

10 s auto subs (15 s with the Nebula Filter); manual 1 to 30 s on the alt-az mount, longer only with the EQ wedge, and 60 s and up needs the StarSense Autoguider too. Filter drawer takes 1.25-inch or 2-inch filters, including dual-band; Celestron sells an optional Nebula Filter.

Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 10 s and 30 s subs is small; from a rural site it can halve the total time, especially with a dual-band filter in place.

Stack across nights. Every smart scope app can continue a stack or you can combine the saved frames on a computer; the figures here are totals, not single-session limits.

Where to buy the OriginAmazon UK Amazon USAffiliate links: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Imaged the Heart Nebula with your Origin? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Heart Nebula from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.

Same target, other telescopes

All telescopes for the Heart Nebula · All targets for the Origin