How long to image the M14 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 20 min (298 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M14. A quick look takes 5 min; a showpiece 1 h 19 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 12 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 32% 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 min43 subs | 11 min171 subs | 46 min684 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 3 min44 subs | 12 min175 subs | 47 min700 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 3 min46 subs | 12 min183 subs | 49 min729 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 3 min50 subs | 13 min200 subs | 53 min800 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 4 min58 subs | 15 min229 subs | 1 h 01 min913 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 5 min75 subs | 20 min298 subs | 1 h 19 min1,189 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 7 min108 subs | 29 min429 subs | 1 h 54 min1,715 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 11 min159 subs | 42 min633 subs | 2 h 49 min2,532 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 18 min268 subs | 1 h 11 min1,069 subs | 4 h 45 min4,274 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 26 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 M14 is 11′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it fills 32% of the frame’s short side.
About the M14
A fainter, more distant globular in Ophiuchus. Takes longer than its neighbours to resolve.
NGC 6402 · Globular cluster in Ophiuchus · magnitude 7.6 · 11′ · 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 M14 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M14 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 23 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 25 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 24 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 26 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 33 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 23 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the DwarfLab Draco: 19 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 23 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 50 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 22 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 48 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the Celestron Origin: 6 min from Bortle 6
- M14 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 8 min from Bortle 6