How long to image the Hercules Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF 3
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF 3 needs about 11 min (44 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Hercules Cluster. A quick look takes 3 min; a showpiece 43 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 8 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is skyglow, so a darker site or a filter helps more than longer subs. In this scope's field it fills 20% 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 min90 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 24 min98 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 30 min120 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 3 min11 subs | 11 min44 subs | 43 min173 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 4 min18 subs | 17 min69 subs | 1 h 08 min274 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 7 min27 subs | 27 min108 subs | 1 h 48 min431 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 12 min48 subs | 48 min192 subs | 3 h 11 min766 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 14 min of run time. The DWARF 3’s battery (rated about 5 h 30 min) 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 20000mAh 18W18 W PD input and it runs while charging; needs a C-to-C cable for PD.
- 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 3 →
How it frames
The Hercules Cluster is 20′ across. The DWARF 3 frames 2.93° × 1.65° at 2.75″ per pixel, so it fills 20% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 8 min30 subs | 8 min30 subs | 17 min69 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 17 min34 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 30 min30 subs | 30 min30 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the Hercules Cluster. It is a globular cluster, and it shines right across the spectrum. A dual-band filter keeps two emission lines and throws the rest away, so most of the light you came for is being stopped along with the sky. From a Bortle 6 sky it would be roughly 9 times slower.
About the Hercules Cluster
The great northern globular, a few hundred thousand stars in a ball a third the Moon's width. Quick and always satisfying.
M13, NGC 6205 · Globular cluster in Hercules · magnitude 5.8 · 20′ · 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 DwarfLab DWARF 3
Small pixels on a 35 mm f/4.3 lens give a sharper image than its aperture suggests, and EQ mode with 60 s subs makes it the read-noise winner in dark skies.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Three built-in filters: VIS, Astro (430 to 690 nm) and dual-band Hα 656 nm / OIII 501 nm.
Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 15 s and 60 s subs is small; from a rural site it can halve the total time, especially with a dual-band filter in place.
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 Hercules Cluster from a DWARF 3? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Hercules Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S50: 7 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S30: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 24 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera II: 7 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 16 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 7 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 6 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Unistellar Odyssey: 28 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Hercules Cluster · All targets for the DWARF 3