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

About 18 min of total integration for a solid image, or 1 h 11 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 4 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin?

At the default 10 s sub length, 107 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 38 from Bortle 3.

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

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 18 min to 10 min.

How long to image the Trifid Nebula with the Celestron Origin

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 18 min (107 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Trifid Nebula. A quick look takes 4 min; a showpiece 1 h 11 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 6 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 55% of the frame’s short side.

Trifid 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 min31 subs	21 min124 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	2 min10 subs	6 min34 subs	22 min133 subs
Bortle 3Rural	2 min10 subs	6 min38 subs	25 min151 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	2 min13 subs	8 min49 subs	32 min193 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	3 min17 subs	11 min65 subs	43 min260 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	4 min27 subs	18 min107 subs	1 h 11 min426 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	8 min47 subs	31 min186 subs	2 h 03 min741 subs
Bortle 8City	13 min77 subs	51 min308 subs	3 h 25 min1,230 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	24 min143 subs	1 h 35 min569 subs	6 h 19 min2,273 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 23 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 Trifid Nebula is 28′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 55% 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	6 min38 subs	11 min65 subs	31 min186 subs
15 s	8 min30 subs	10 min42 subs	30 min122 subs
30 s	15 min30 subs	15 min30 subs	30 min61 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	6 min38 subs	11 min65 subs	31 min186 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	6 min39 subs	8 min47 subs	14 min84 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 Trifid Nebula

Red emission, blue reflection and dark lanes in one object. Shoot it without a filter to keep the blue, or dual-band for the red.

M20, NGC 6514 · Emission nebula in Sagittarius · magnitude 6.3 · 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

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

Have an image of the Trifid 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 Trifid Nebula · All targets for the Origin