How long to image the Wild Duck Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 9 min (36 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Wild Duck Cluster. A quick look takes 3 min; a showpiece 35 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 8 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 13% 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 | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 23 min90 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 23 min90 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 23 min93 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 25 min101 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 28 min113 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 3 min10 subs | 9 min36 subs | 35 min142 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 3 min13 subs | 12 min50 subs | 49 min197 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 min18 subs | 18 min71 subs | 1 h 11 min283 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 min30 subs | 29 min117 subs | 1 h 56 min466 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 11 min of run time. The DWARF II’s battery (rated about 3 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 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 Wild Duck Cluster is 14′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it fills 13% of the frame’s short side.
About the Wild Duck Cluster
The richest open cluster in the sky, dense enough to pass for a loose globular. Rewards short subs to keep star colour.
M11, NGC 6705 · Open cluster in Scutum · magnitude 5.8 · 14′ · best in Jun, Jul, Aug. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Open clusters are the easiest targets in the sky. The stars are bright, so the aim is colour and tight stars rather than depth: short subs, no filter, and stop before the bright members saturate. The nominal time here gets you clean star colour; more integration only adds background stars.
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 Wild Duck Cluster from a DWARF II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Wild Duck Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S50: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S30: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera II: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 6 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 6 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the Unistellar Odyssey: 10 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Wild Duck Cluster with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Wild Duck Cluster · All targets for the DWARF II