How long to image the Tadpoles Nebula with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 1 h 01 min (367 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Tadpoles Nebula. A quick look takes 15 min; a showpiece 4 h 04 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 19 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 fills 78% of the frame’s short side.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 4 min24 subs | 15 min93 subs | 1 h 01 min369 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 4 min26 subs | 17 min101 subs | 1 h 07 min403 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 5 min30 subs | 19 min117 subs | 1 h 18 min466 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 6 min39 subs | 26 min156 subs | 1 h 43 min621 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 9 min55 subs | 36 min217 subs | 2 h 24 min865 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 15 min92 subs | 1 h 01 min367 subs | 4 h 04 min1,466 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 27 min164 subs | 1 h 49 min653 subs | 7 h 15 min2,609 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 46 min275 subs | 3 h 03 min1,097 subs | 12 h4,385 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 25 min511 subs | 5 h 40 min2,043 subs | 23 h8,172 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 19 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 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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How it frames
The Tadpoles Nebula is 40′ × 30′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 78% of the frame’s short side.
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 | 19 min117 subs | 36 min217 subs | 1 h 49 min653 subs |
| 15 s | 18 min72 subs | 35 min139 subs | 1 h 47 min430 subs |
| 30 s | 17 min34 subs | 33 min67 subs | 1 h 46 min212 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 19 min117 subs | 36 min217 subs | 1 h 49 min653 subs |
| dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer | 18 min110 subs | 23 min141 subs | 46 min274 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 Tadpoles Nebula
A hydrogen cloud around the cluster NGC 1893, with two tadpole-shaped pillars. Sits in a frame with the Flaming Star on a wide scope.
IC 410 · Emission nebula in Auriga · magnitude 7.5 · 40′ × 30′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. 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.
Have an image of the Tadpoles Nebula from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Tadpoles Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 2 h 22 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 2 h 40 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 2 h 47 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 2 h 53 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 2 h 55 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 2 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 52 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 13 h from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 3 h 51 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 8 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 3 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 8 h 15 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 3 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 16 h from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 24 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Tadpoles Nebula · All targets for the Origin