How long to image the Sagittarius Star Cloud with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 29 min (117 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Sagittarius Star Cloud. A quick look takes 7 min; a showpiece 1 h 57 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 17 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 84% 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 | 4 min16 subs | 16 min63 subs | 1 h 03 min251 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 4 min17 subs | 16 min65 subs | 1 h 04 min258 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 4 min17 subs | 17 min68 subs | 1 h 07 min270 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 5 min19 subs | 19 min76 subs | 1 h 15 min301 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 5 min22 subs | 22 min88 subs | 1 h 27 min349 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 7 min30 subs | 29 min117 subs | 1 h 57 min467 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 11 min44 subs | 43 min174 subs | 2 h 53 min693 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 16 min66 subs | 1 h 05 min261 subs | 4 h 21 min1,043 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 28 min112 subs | 1 h 52 min448 subs | 7 h 27 min1,789 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 38 min of run time. The DWARF II’s battery (rated about 3 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 PD power bank 10000mAh 18W18 W PD input; runs while charging.
- 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 DWARF II →
How it frames
The Sagittarius Star Cloud is 90′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it fills 84% of the frame’s short side.
About the Sagittarius Star Cloud
A window through the dust into the inner Milky Way, densely packed with stars. Short stacks are enough; it is stars, not nebulosity.
M24, IC 4715 · Star cloud in Sagittarius · magnitude 4.6 · 90′ · best in Jun, Jul, Aug. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Star clouds are dense fields of ordinary stars rather than nebulosity. Short subs, no filter, and a modest total keep the field from saturating while still showing the depth of the Milky Way.
About the DwarfLab DWARF II
The original pocket scope. 24 mm aperture and tiny 1.45 µm pixels mean it is slow per pixel, so bin or downsample and be patient.
15 s is the hard maximum in any mode; DwarfLab recommends EQ mode at 15 s. Two built-in filters, VIS and Astro (IR-pass); no dual-band. The optional UHC filter is no longer sold.
The DWARF II uses fixed 15 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 Sagittarius Star Cloud from a DWARF II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the ZWO Seestar S50: 9 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 10 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the ZWO Seestar S30: 9 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 10 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 13 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 9 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the Vaonis Vespera II: 9 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 20 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 19 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the Unistellar Odyssey: 34 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Sagittarius Star Cloud with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Sagittarius Star Cloud · All targets for the DWARF II