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

About 12 min of total integration for a solid image, or 48 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 3 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin Mark II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 72 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 30 from Bortle 3.

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

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 12 min to 7 min.

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

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin Mark II needs about 12 min (72 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Omega Nebula. A quick look takes 3 min; a showpiece 48 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 5 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 25% of the frame’s short side.

Omega 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 min10 subs	5 min30 subs	15 min90 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	2 min10 subs	5 min30 subs	16 min96 subs
Bortle 3Rural	2 min10 subs	5 min30 subs	18 min107 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	2 min10 subs	6 min34 subs	22 min135 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	2 min12 subs	7 min45 subs	30 min179 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	3 min18 subs	12 min72 subs	48 min286 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	5 min31 subs	20 min123 subs	1 h 22 min491 subs
Bortle 8City	8 min51 subs	34 min203 subs	2 h 15 min809 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	15 min93 subs	1 h 02 min372 subs	4 h 08 min1,487 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 15 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 Omega Nebula is 11′ across. The Origin Mark II frames 1.32° × 0.75° at 1.23″ per pixel, so it fills 25% 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	5 min30 subs	7 min45 subs	20 min123 subs
15 s	8 min30 subs	8 min30 subs	20 min82 subs
30 s	15 min30 subs	15 min30 subs	20 min41 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	5 min30 subs	7 min45 subs	20 min123 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	5 min30 subs	5 min32 subs	9 min56 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 Omega Nebula

A bright, compact swan-shaped emission nebula, one of the brightest in the sky per unit area. Excellent from suburban skies.

M17, NGC 6618, Swan Nebula · Emission nebula in Sagittarius · magnitude 6.0 · 11′ · 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.

Where to buy the Origin Mark IICelestron store Direct Amazon UK Amazon USThe Celestron store link is a plain link; the others are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Imaged the Omega 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 Omega 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 Omega Nebula · All targets for the Origin Mark II