How long to image the M105 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 53 min (792 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M105. A quick look takes 13 min; a showpiece 3 h 31 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 32 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 16% 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 | 7 min112 subs | 30 min445 subs | 1 h 59 min1,780 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 8 min114 subs | 30 min456 subs | 2 h 01 min1,822 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 8 min119 subs | 32 min476 subs | 2 h 07 min1,903 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 9 min132 subs | 35 min525 subs | 2 h 20 min2,098 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 10 min151 subs | 40 min602 subs | 2 h 40 min2,407 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 13 min198 subs | 53 min792 subs | 3 h 31 min3,167 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 19 min289 subs | 1 h 17 min1,154 subs | 5 h 08 min4,613 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 29 min429 subs | 1 h 54 min1,715 subs | 7 h 37 min6,859 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 49 min729 subs | 3 h 14 min2,913 subs | 13 h11,649 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 09 min of run time. The eQuinox 2’s battery (rated about 11 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.)
- 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.
Affiliate links: the retailer pays us a small commission and you pay the same price. These are search links to the named product, not endorsements of a particular listing; check the listing matches your model.
Everything that fits the eQuinox 2 →
How it frames
The M105 is 5.4′ × 4.8′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it fills 16% of the frame’s short side.
About the M105
An elliptical in the Leo I group, with NGC 3384 and NGC 3389 forming a tight trio.
NGC 3379 · Galaxy in Leo · magnitude 9.3 · 5.4′ × 4.8′ · best in Feb, Mar, Apr. 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 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 M105 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M105 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h from Bortle 6
- M105 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 09 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 59 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the DwarfLab Draco: 49 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 21 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h from Bortle 6
- M105 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 57 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the Celestron Origin: 16 min from Bortle 6
- M105 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 22 min from Bortle 6