How long to image the M107 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 53 min (799 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M107. A quick look takes 13 min; a showpiece 3 h 33 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 31 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 38% 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 min110 subs | 29 min438 subs | 1 h 57 min1,749 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 7 min113 subs | 30 min449 subs | 2 h1,794 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 8 min118 subs | 31 min470 subs | 2 h 05 min1,878 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 9 min131 subs | 35 min521 subs | 2 h 19 min2,081 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 10 min151 subs | 40 min601 subs | 2 h 40 min2,404 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 13 min200 subs | 53 min799 subs | 3 h 33 min3,196 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 20 min295 subs | 1 h 18 min1,177 subs | 5 h 14 min4,706 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 29 min441 subs | 1 h 57 min1,763 subs | 7 h 50 min7,049 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 50 min753 subs | 3 h 21 min3,012 subs | 13 h12,047 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.
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Everything that fits the eQuinox 2 →
How it frames
The M107 is 13′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it fills 38% of the frame’s short side.
About the M107
A loose, dust-dimmed globular in Ophiuchus. Modest but straightforward.
NGC 6171 · Globular cluster in Ophiuchus · magnitude 7.9 · 13′ · best in May, Jun, Jul. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Globular clusters are point sources packed tight, so they come quickly: the core resolves into stars within a handful of minutes on any smart scope. More time deepens the halo and pulls in the faint outer members. Use short subs so the core does not saturate into a white blob, and no filter.
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 M107 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M107 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 59 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 09 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 26 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 59 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the DwarfLab Draco: 49 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 22 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 59 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 12 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 57 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the Celestron Origin: 16 min from Bortle 6
- M107 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 22 min from Bortle 6