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

About 32 min of total integration for a solid image, or 2 h 07 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 8 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin Mark II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 191 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 60 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Andromeda Galaxy?

No. The Andromeda Galaxy is a broadband target and a dual-band filter blocks most of its light. Shoot without a filter.

How long to image the Andromeda Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin Mark II needs about 32 min (191 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Andromeda Galaxy. A quick look takes 8 min; a showpiece 2 h 07 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 10 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 is 4.0× wider than the frame.

Andromeda Galaxy 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 min12 subs	8 min47 subs	31 min187 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	2 min13 subs	8 min51 subs	34 min204 subs
Bortle 3Rural	2 min15 subs	10 min60 subs	40 min238 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	3 min20 subs	13 min80 subs	53 min319 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	5 min28 subs	19 min112 subs	1 h 14 min447 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	8 min48 subs	32 min191 subs	2 h 07 min763 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	14 min86 subs	57 min341 subs	3 h 47 min1,364 subs
Bortle 8City	24 min144 subs	1 h 36 min575 subs	6 h 23 min2,297 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	45 min268 subs	2 h 59 min1,072 subs	12 h4,288 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 41 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 Andromeda Galaxy is 178′ × 63′ across. The Origin Mark II frames 1.32° × 0.75° at 1.23″ per pixel, so it is 4.0× wider than the frame. A mosaic, or choosing the part you want and letting the rest go, is how it gets shot on this scope.

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	10 min60 subs	19 min112 subs	57 min341 subs
15 s	10 min39 subs	18 min74 subs	57 min227 subs
30 s	15 min30 subs	18 min37 subs	56 min113 subs

About the Andromeda Galaxy

The nearest big spiral and the most imaged galaxy in the sky. The core arrives in minutes, the dust lanes in an hour, the faint outer disc needs a whole night. Too big for most smart-scope fields without mosaic.

M31, NGC 224 · Galaxy in Andromeda · magnitude 3.4 · 178′ × 63′ · best in Sep, Oct, Nov. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.

Galaxies are broadband targets: their light is mostly starlight spread across the spectrum, so a dual-band filter throws most of it away and makes things slower, not faster. Shoot without a filter (or with a plain UV/IR cut) and rely on total time and a dark sky. The core of a galaxy is usually many times brighter than its outer disc, so a short stack shows the nucleus long before the arms; the figures here are for the arms and disc, not the core.

Field rotation in Alt-Az mode crops the edges of the stack over a long session, so on a big galaxy re-centre now and then or use EQ mode where your scope supports it.

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 Andromeda Galaxy 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 Andromeda Galaxy 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 Andromeda Galaxy · All targets for the Origin Mark II