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

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

How many subs is that on the Origin?

At the default 10 s sub length, 52 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 9 min to 5 min.

How long to image the Omega Nebula with the Celestron Origin

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 9 min (52 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Omega Nebula. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 35 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 21% of the frame’s short side.

Omega Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 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	15 min90 subs
Bortle 3Rural	2 min10 subs	5 min30 subs	15 min90 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	2 min10 subs	5 min30 subs	17 min103 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	2 min10 subs	6 min34 subs	22 min133 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	2 min13 subs	9 min52 subs	35 min208 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	4 min22 subs	15 min88 subs	58 min350 subs
Bortle 8City	6 min36 subs	24 min143 subs	1 h 35 min571 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	11 min66 subs	43 min261 subs	2 h 54 min1,042 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 11 min of run time. The Origin’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 frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 21% 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. Time for a solid image by sub length:

Sub length	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
10 s	5 min30 subs	6 min34 subs	15 min88 subs
15 s	8 min30 subs	8 min30 subs	14 min58 subs
30 s	15 min30 subs	15 min30 subs	15 min30 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	6 min34 subs	15 min88 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	5 min30 subs	5 min30 subs	7 min44 subs

The Origin 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

The first-generation Origin: a 6-inch f/2.2 RASA in a smart package and the fastest system here by a wide margin. Superseded by the Mark II in late 2025 and no longer sold new; Celestron offers a camera upgrade to the Mark II sensor.

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. Filter drawer takes 1.25-inch or 2-inch filters, including dual-band; Celestron sells an optional Nebula Filter.

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 Omega Nebula with your Origin? 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? 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