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

About 3 h 18 min of total integration for a solid image, or 13 h for a showpiece. A quick look takes 50 min.

How many subs is that on the DWARF mini?

At the default 15 s sub length, 793 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 533 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 5 h 30 min to 3 h 18 min.

How long to image the Soul Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF mini needs about 3 h 18 min (793 subs of 15 s with the built-in dual-band filter) for a solid image of the Soul Nebula. A quick look takes 50 min; a showpiece 13 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 h 13 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 84% of the frame’s short side.

Soul Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 15 s subs with the built-in dual-band filter.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	32 min127 subs	2 h 07 min508 subs	8 h 27 min2,029 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	32 min130 subs	2 h 09 min517 subs	8 h 36 min2,065 subs
Bortle 3Rural	33 min134 subs	2 h 13 min533 subs	8 h 53 min2,131 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	36 min144 subs	2 h 23 min573 subs	9 h 33 min2,291 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	40 min160 subs	2 h 39 min637 subs	11 h2,546 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	50 min199 subs	3 h 18 min793 subs	13 h3,170 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	1 h 08 min273 subs	4 h 32 min1,090 subs	18 h4,359 subs
Bortle 8City	1 h 37 min388 subs	6 h 28 min1,552 subs	26 h6,205 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	2 h 38 min634 subs	11 h2,536 subs	42 h10,143 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 4 h 18 min of run time. The DWARF mini’s battery is rated at about 3 h 30 min, less near freezing, so the session needs an external power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time, and 30% off the battery for a November night.)

USB-C PD power bank 10000mAh 20W7,000 mAh inside, about four hours; a PD bank extends the night.
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red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
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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.
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How it frames

The Soul Nebula is 60′ × 30′ across. The DWARF mini frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it fills 84% of the frame’s short side.

Longer subs

Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Time for a solid image by sub length:

Sub length	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
15 s	2 h 13 min533 subs	2 h 39 min637 subs	4 h 32 min1,090 subs
30 s	1 h 34 min189 subs	2 h241 subs	3 h 54 min468 subs
60 s	1 h 15 min75 subs	1 h 41 min101 subs	3 h 34 min215 subs
90 s	1 h 08 min46 subs	1 h 34 min63 subs	3 h 28 min139 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
Astro (no light-pollution filter)	1 h 57 min470 subs	3 h 22 min809 subs	9 h 32 min2,290 subs
dual-band	2 h 13 min533 subs	2 h 39 min637 subs	4 h 32 min1,090 subs

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 DwarfLab DWARF mini

DwarfLab’s answer to the Seestar S30: same sensor and focal length, big pixels, dual-band filter built in, and 90 s subs in EQ mode. Sensitivity over megapixels.

Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Built-in Astro (430 to 690 nm), dark-frame and dual-band Hα / OIII filters; no plain VIS filter on the tele camera.

Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 15 s and 90 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 DWARF mini? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Soul Nebula from a DWARF mini? 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 DWARF mini