How long to image the Witch Head Nebula with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 11 h (3,849 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Witch Head Nebula. A quick look takes 2 h 40 min; a showpiece 43 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 3 h 05 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 3.5× wider than the frame.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 35 min211 subs | 2 h 20 min843 subs | 9 h 22 min3,371 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 39 min234 subs | 2 h 36 min936 subs | 10 h3,741 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 46 min278 subs | 3 h 05 min1,110 subs | 12 h4,439 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 h 04 min384 subs | 4 h 15 min1,533 subs | 17 h6,132 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 32 min551 subs | 6 h 07 min2,204 subs | 24 h8,814 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 h 40 min963 subs | 11 h3,849 subs | 43 h15,395 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 4 h 51 min1,746 subs | 19 h6,984 subs | 78 h27,935 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 8 h 14 min2,963 subs | 33 h11,852 subs | 130+ h47,405 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 15 h5,559 subs | 62 h22,233 subs | 250+ h88,930 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 14 h of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 6 h 57 min each. The Origin’s battery is rated at about 6 h, less near freezing, so each night needs an external power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time, and 30% off the battery for a December night.)
- portable power station 300W AC outletRuns the supplied 12 V adapter in the field; the dew shield and heater are already built in.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
- 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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Everything that fits the Origin →
How it frames
The Witch Head Nebula is 180′ × 60′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it is 3.5× wider than the frame. A mosaic, or choosing the part you want and letting the rest go, is how it gets shot on this scope.
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 | 3 h 05 min1,110 subs | 6 h 07 min2,204 subs | 19 h6,984 subs |
| 15 s | 2 h 49 min677 subs | 5 h 51 min1,406 subs | 19 h4,593 subs |
| 30 s | 2 h 33 min307 subs | 5 h 36 min672 subs | 19 h2,265 subs |
About the Witch Head Nebula
A very faint blue reflection nebula lit by Rigel. A dark-sky, all-night, broadband project; it is one of the hardest objects on this list.
IC 2118 · Reflection nebula in Eridanus · magnitude 13.0 · 180′ × 60′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Reflection nebulae are starlight scattered by dust, so they are broadband and blue. A dual-band filter removes almost all of it; do not use one. These are among the faintest structures a smart scope can attempt and the figures run long. A dark sky matters more here than for any other type, and the Moon must be down.
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.
Have an image of the Witch Head Nebula from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Witch Head Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 41 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 44 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 43 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 47 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 59 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 40 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 33 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 140+ h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 41 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 91 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 39 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 87 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 38 h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 180+ h from Bortle 6
- Witch Head Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 15 h from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Witch Head Nebula · All targets for the Origin