How long to image the Eagle Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 1 h 26 min (1,295 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the Eagle Nebula. A quick look takes 22 min; a showpiece 5 h 45 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 50 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it is just over the frame at 1.0×.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 12 min174 subs | 46 min696 subs | 3 h 05 min2,782 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 12 min179 subs | 48 min714 subs | 3 h 10 min2,856 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 12 min188 subs | 50 min749 subs | 3 h 20 min2,995 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 14 min209 subs | 56 min833 subs | 3 h 42 min3,332 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 16 min242 subs | 1 h 04 min967 subs | 4 h 18 min3,867 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 22 min324 subs | 1 h 26 min1,295 subs | 5 h 45 min5,180 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 32 min481 subs | 2 h 08 min1,921 subs | 8 h 32 min7,681 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 48 min723 subs | 3 h 13 min2,891 subs | 13 h11,563 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 23 min1,241 subs | 5 h 31 min4,961 subs | 22 h19,844 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 52 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 Eagle Nebula is 35′ × 28′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.0×. Point at the part you want; the edges will fall outside the frame.
Filters
The Eagle Nebula is an emission target, where a dual-band filter would normally cut the time several-fold from a lit sky, but the eQuinox 2 has no dual-band option: 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 figures above are for the No filter position, and a darker sky is the lever that remains.
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 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 Eagle Nebula from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Eagle Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 11 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 14 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 48 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 5 h 25 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 3 h 33 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 3 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 6 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 25 min from Bortle 6
- Eagle Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 35 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Eagle Nebula · All targets for the eQuinox 2