How long should I image the Eagle Nebula with the Origin Mark II from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 35 min of total integration for a solid image, or 2 h 18 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 9 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin Mark II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 208 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 64 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Eagle Nebula?

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 35 min to 16 min.

How long to image the Eagle Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin Mark II needs about 35 min (208 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Eagle Nebula. A quick look takes 9 min; a showpiece 2 h 18 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 11 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 78% of the frame’s short side.

Eagle Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	2 min13 subs	8 min50 subs	33 min200 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	2 min14 subs	9 min55 subs	36 min219 subs
Bortle 3Rural	3 min16 subs	11 min64 subs	43 min256 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	4 min22 subs	14 min86 subs	57 min344 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	5 min31 subs	20 min121 subs	1 h 21 min484 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	9 min52 subs	35 min208 subs	2 h 18 min829 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	15 min93 subs	1 h 02 min371 subs	4 h 07 min1,484 subs
Bortle 8City	26 min157 subs	1 h 44 min626 subs	6 h 57 min2,502 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	49 min293 subs	3 h 15 min1,169 subs	13 h4,673 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 45 min of run time. The Origin Mark II’s battery (rated about 6 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.)

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How it frames

The Eagle Nebula is 35′ × 28′ across. The Origin Mark II frames 1.32° × 0.75° at 1.23″ per pixel, so it fills 78% of the frame’s short side.

Longer subs

10 s auto subs (15 s with the Nebula Filter); manual 1 to 30 s on the alt-az mount, longer only with the EQ wedge, and 60 s and up needs the StarSense Autoguider too. Celestron warns the f/2.2 optics saturate quickly without the filter. Time for a solid image by sub length:

Sub length	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
10 s	11 min64 subs	20 min121 subs	1 h 02 min371 subs
15 s	10 min42 subs	20 min80 subs	1 h 02 min247 subs
30 s	15 min30 subs	20 min40 subs	1 h 01 min123 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	11 min64 subs	20 min121 subs	1 h 02 min371 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	9 min53 subs	12 min70 subs	24 min147 subs

The Origin Mark II has no built-in dual-band filter. Filter drawer takes 1.25-inch or 2-inch filters, including dual-band; Celestron sells an optional Nebula Filter. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.

About the Eagle Nebula

Home of the Pillars of Creation. The cluster comes fast; the pillars and surrounding nebulosity need a dual-band filter and patience.

M16, NGC 6611, IC 4703 · Emission nebula in Serpens · magnitude 6.0 · 35′ × 28′ · best in Jun, Jul, Aug. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.

Emission nebulae glow in a few narrow lines, mostly hydrogen-alpha (deep red) and doubly ionised oxygen (teal). A dual-band filter passes those lines and blocks most skyglow, which is why it cuts the time needed from a suburban sky so dramatically. Use it. From a genuinely dark site the gain is smaller because there is less skyglow to block, and read noise becomes the limit, which is where longer subs (EQ mode, or Expert Mode on a Vespera) earn their keep.

Stars lose colour through a dual-band filter; a short broadband stack blended in fixes that if you care.

About the Celestron Origin Mark II

The Origin Mark II (late 2025): the same 6-inch f/2.2 RASA with an 8 MP IMX678 in place of the original 6 MP IMX178. Smaller pixels for finer detail, a quieter sensor, and still the fastest system here by a wide margin.

Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 10 s and 30 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.

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Imaged the Eagle Nebula with your Origin Mark II? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Eagle Nebula from a Origin Mark II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.

Same target, other telescopes

All telescopes for the Eagle Nebula · All targets for the Origin Mark II