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

About 1 h 27 min of total integration for a solid image, or 5 h 49 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 22 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin?

At the default 10 s sub length, 525 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 164 from Bortle 3.

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

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 1 h 27 min to 44 min.

How long to image the Soul Nebula with the Celestron Origin

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 1 h 27 min (525 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Soul Nebula. A quick look takes 22 min; a showpiece 5 h 49 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 27 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×.

Soul 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 min32 subs	21 min128 subs	1 h 25 min512 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	6 min35 subs	23 min140 subs	1 h 33 min560 subs
Bortle 3Rural	7 min41 subs	27 min164 subs	1 h 49 min653 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	9 min55 subs	36 min219 subs	2 h 26 min876 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	13 min77 subs	51 min308 subs	3 h 25 min1,229 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	22 min132 subs	1 h 27 min525 subs	5 h 49 min2,097 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	39 min235 subs	2 h 36 min938 subs	10 h3,750 subs
Bortle 8City	1 h 06 min395 subs	4 h 23 min1,580 subs	18 h6,317 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	2 h 03 min737 subs	8 h 11 min2,948 subs	33 h11,791 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 54 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.
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How it frames

The Soul Nebula is 60′ × 30′ 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	27 min164 subs	51 min308 subs	2 h 36 min938 subs
15 s	25 min101 subs	49 min197 subs	2 h 34 min617 subs
30 s	23 min46 subs	47 min95 subs	2 h 32 min305 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	27 min164 subs	51 min308 subs	2 h 36 min938 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	25 min152 subs	33 min196 subs	1 h 05 min389 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 Soul Nebula

The Heart's companion, a knobbly emission cloud full of pillars. Faint overall; long dual-band integrations reward you.

IC 1848, Sh2-199 · Emission nebula in Cassiopeia · magnitude 6.5 · 60′ × 30′ · 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.

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

Have an image of the Soul 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 Soul Nebula · All targets for the Origin