How long to image the M19 with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 6 min (34 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M19. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 23 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 33% 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 | 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 | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 min10 subs | 6 min34 subs | 23 min136 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 min15 subs | 9 min57 subs | 38 min228 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 min24 subs | 15 min93 subs | 1 h 02 min370 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 min43 subs | 28 min169 subs | 1 h 52 min674 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 7 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.)
- portable power station 300W AC outletRuns the supplied 12 V adapter in the field; the dew shield and heater are already built in.
- 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 Origin →
How it frames
The M19 is 17′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 33% 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 | 5 min30 subs | 9 min57 subs |
| 15 s | 8 min30 subs | 8 min30 subs | 9 min38 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs |
About the M19
The most oblate of the globulars, visibly elongated. Low in the south from mid-northern latitudes.
NGC 6273 · Globular cluster in Ophiuchus · magnitude 6.8 · 17′ · 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 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.
Have an image of the M19 from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M19 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 21 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 23 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 22 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 25 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 31 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 21 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the DwarfLab Draco: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 11 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 21 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 47 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 20 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 45 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 19 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 25 min from Bortle 6
- M19 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 8 min from Bortle 6