How long to image the Sombrero Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 2 h 39 min (636 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Sombrero Galaxy. A quick look takes 40 min; a showpiece 11 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 24 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 8% 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 | 19 min77 subs | 1 h 17 min308 subs | 5 h 08 min1,232 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 20 min80 subs | 1 h 20 min319 subs | 5 h 18 min1,273 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 21 min85 subs | 1 h 24 min338 subs | 5 h 37 min1,349 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 24 min96 subs | 1 h 36 min384 subs | 6 h 23 min1,533 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 29 min115 subs | 1 h 54 min457 subs | 7 h 36 min1,825 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 40 min159 subs | 2 h 39 min636 subs | 11 h2,541 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 1 h 01 min245 subs | 4 h 04 min977 subs | 16 h3,905 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 34 min377 subs | 6 h 16 min1,506 subs | 25 h6,023 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 2 h 45 min659 subs | 11 h2,636 subs | 44 h10,541 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 3 h 26 min of run time. The DWARF II’s battery is rated at about 3 h, so the session needs an external power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time.)
- 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.
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Everything that fits the DWARF II →
How it frames
The Sombrero Galaxy is 9′ × 4′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it fills 8% of the frame’s short side.
About the Sombrero Galaxy
The bright bulge and knife-edge dust lane are obvious within an hour. Low from northern Europe, so catch it near the meridian.
M104, NGC 4594 · Galaxy in Virgo · magnitude 8.0 · 9′ × 4′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Galaxies are broadband targets: their light is mostly starlight spread across the spectrum, so a dual-band filter throws most of it away and makes things slower, not faster. Shoot without a filter (or with a plain UV/IR cut) and rely on total time and a dark sky. The core of a galaxy is usually many times brighter than its outer disc, so a short stack shows the nucleus long before the arms; the figures here are for the arms and disc, not the core.
Field rotation in Alt-Az mode crops the edges of the stack over a long session, so on a big galaxy re-centre now and then or use EQ mode where your scope supports it.
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 Sombrero Galaxy from a DWARF II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Sombrero Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 47 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 51 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 49 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 54 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 09 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 47 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 39 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 47 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 45 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 45 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 40 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 42 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 3 h 11 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 12 min from Bortle 6
- Sombrero Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 17 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Sombrero Galaxy · All targets for the DWARF II