How long to image the Witch Head Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 140+ h (33,852 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Witch Head Nebula. A quick look takes 35 h; a showpiece 560+ h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 67 h. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it is 1.7× wider than the frame.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 15 h3,558 subs | 59 h14,230 subs | 240+ h56,919 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 15 h3,709 subs | 62 h14,833 subs | 250+ h59,329 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 17 h3,994 subs | 67 h15,973 subs | 270+ h63,889 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 20 h4,684 subs | 78 h18,735 subs | 310+ h74,937 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 24 h5,778 subs | 96 h23,112 subs | 390+ h92,447 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 35 h8,463 subs | 140+ h33,852 subs | 560+ h135,408 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 57 h13,580 subs | 230+ h54,317 subs | 910+ h217,267 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 90 h21,523 subs | 360+ h86,092 subs | 1430+ h344,366 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 160+ h38,465 subs | 640+ h153,858 subs | 2560+ h615,430 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 180+ h of run time. That is more than one night: over 27 nights, about 6 h 47 min each. The DWARF II’s battery is rated at about 3 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.)
- USB-C PD power bank 10000mAh 18W18 W PD input; runs while charging.
- 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 DWARF II →
How it frames
The Witch Head Nebula is 180′ × 60′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it is 1.7× 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.
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 DwarfLab DWARF II
The original pocket scope. 24 mm aperture and tiny 1.45 µm pixels mean it is slow per pixel, so bin or downsample and be patient.
15 s is the hard maximum in any mode; DwarfLab recommends EQ mode at 15 s. Two built-in filters, VIS and Astro (IR-pass); no dual-band. The optional UHC filter is no longer sold.
The DWARF II uses fixed 15 s subs, so the only levers you have are the sky you shoot from, the filter, and total time.
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 DWARF II? 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 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: 11 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 DWARF II