How long should I image the Jellyfish Nebula with the Origin Mark II from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 2 h 23 min of total integration for a solid image, or 9 h 32 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 36 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin Mark II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 859 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 234 from Bortle 3.

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

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 2 h 23 min to 59 min.

How long to image the Jellyfish Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin Mark II needs about 2 h 23 min (859 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Jellyfish Nebula. A quick look takes 36 min; a showpiece 9 h 32 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 39 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 1.1×.

Jellyfish Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	7 min44 subs	29 min173 subs	1 h 55 min690 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	8 min49 subs	32 min194 subs	2 h 09 min774 subs
Bortle 3Rural	10 min59 subs	39 min234 subs	2 h 36 min934 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	14 min83 subs	55 min330 subs	3 h 40 min1,320 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	20 min121 subs	1 h 20 min483 subs	5 h 22 min1,932 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	36 min215 subs	2 h 23 min859 subs	9 h 32 min3,434 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	1 h 06 min394 subs	4 h 22 min1,574 subs	17 h6,296 subs
Bortle 8City	1 h 52 min672 subs	7 h 27 min2,685 subs	30 h10,740 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	3 h 31 min1,264 subs	14 h5,055 subs	56 h20,217 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 3 h 06 min of run time. The Origin Mark II’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 January night.)

portable power station 300W AC outletRuns the supplied 12 V adapter off-grid; dew shield and heater are built in.
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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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How it frames

The Jellyfish Nebula is 50′ × 40′ across. The Origin Mark II frames 1.32° × 0.75° at 1.23″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.1×. 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. Celestron warns the f/2.2 optics saturate quickly without the filter. Time for a solid image by sub length:

Sub length	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
10 s	39 min234 subs	1 h 20 min483 subs	4 h 22 min1,574 subs
15 s	38 min152 subs	1 h 20 min319 subs	4 h 21 min1,046 subs
30 s	37 min74 subs	1 h 19 min158 subs	4 h 20 min521 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	39 min234 subs	1 h 20 min483 subs	4 h 22 min1,574 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	27 min165 subs	40 min241 subs	1 h 36 min575 subs

The Origin Mark II 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 Jellyfish Nebula

A supernova remnant beside Propus in Gemini, with a bright rim like a jellyfish bell. Faint; dual-band and hours.

IC 443, Sh2-248 · Supernova remnant in Gemini · magnitude 12.0 · 50′ × 40′ · best in Dec, Jan, Feb. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.

Supernova remnants are emission-line objects, strong in both hydrogen-alpha and OIII, and their filaments are thin, so pixel scale matters as much as aperture. A dual-band filter is essential from any lit sky and still helps under a dark one. These are long-integration targets; plan on several sessions and stack across nights.

About the Celestron Origin Mark II

The Origin Mark II (late 2025): the same 6-inch f/2.2 RASA with an 8 MP IMX678 in place of the original 6 MP IMX178. Smaller pixels for finer detail, a quieter sensor, and still the fastest system here by a wide margin.

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.

Where to buy the Origin Mark IICelestron store Direct Amazon UK Amazon USThe Celestron store link is a plain link; the others are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

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

Have an image of the Jellyfish Nebula from a Origin Mark II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.

Same target, other telescopes

All telescopes for the Jellyfish Nebula · All targets for the Origin Mark II