How long to image the Jellyfish Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 6 h 05 min (5,480 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the Jellyfish Nebula. A quick look takes 1 h 31 min; a showpiece 24 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 3 h 26 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it is just over the frame at 1.5×.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 48 min716 subs | 3 h 11 min2,863 subs | 13 h11,452 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 49 min736 subs | 3 h 16 min2,944 subs | 13 h11,774 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 52 min774 subs | 3 h 26 min3,096 subs | 14 h12,382 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 58 min866 subs | 3 h 51 min3,464 subs | 15 h13,855 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 07 min1,012 subs | 4 h 30 min4,048 subs | 18 h16,190 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 31 min1,370 subs | 6 h 05 min5,480 subs | 24 h21,919 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 17 min2,053 subs | 9 h 07 min8,209 subs | 36 h32,836 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 3 h 27 min3,112 subs | 14 h12,447 subs | 55 h49,785 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 5 h 58 min5,371 subs | 24 h21,484 subs | 95 h85,933 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 7 h 55 min of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 3 h 57 min each. The eQuinox 2’s battery (rated about 11 h) should cover each night; 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.)
- USB-C power bank 20000mAh 5V 2AUnistellar asks for a 5 V 2 A output; PD is not needed.
- 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 eQuinox 2 →
How it frames
The Jellyfish Nebula is 50′ × 40′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.5×. Point at the part you want; the edges will fall outside the frame.
Filters
The Jellyfish Nebula is an emission target, where a dual-band filter would normally cut the time several-fold from a lit sky, but the eQuinox 2 has no dual-band option: No built-in filter. Unistellar sells only a solar filter and says a third-party filter is at your own risk and voids the warranty. The figures above are for the No filter position, and a darker sky is the lever that remains.
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 Unistellar eQuinox 2
A 114 mm Newtonian with five times the light grasp of a 50 mm refractor. Fixed 4 s subs put it in read-noise territory under dark skies, but the aperture carries it. The published field is 45.6′ × 34.2′, a crop of the sensor.
Fixed 4 s subs in Enhanced Vision; they cannot be changed. No built-in filter. Unistellar sells only a solar filter and says a third-party filter is at your own risk and voids the warranty.
The eQuinox 2 uses fixed 4 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 Jellyfish Nebula from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Jellyfish Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 4 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 4 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 4 h 43 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 4 h 51 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 4 h 52 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 3 h 56 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 3 h 09 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 23 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 6 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 15 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 6 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 14 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 28 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 45 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 2 h 23 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Jellyfish Nebula · All targets for the eQuinox 2