How long to image the Andromeda Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF 3 needs about 2 h 07 min (509 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Andromeda Galaxy. A quick look takes 32 min; a showpiece 8 h 28 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 44 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 1.8× wider than the frame.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 9 min37 subs | 36 min146 subs | 2 h 25 min581 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 10 min40 subs | 39 min157 subs | 2 h 36 min626 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 11 min45 subs | 44 min178 subs | 2 h 57 min710 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 14 min58 subs | 57 min229 subs | 3 h 49 min915 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 19 min78 subs | 1 h 17 min310 subs | 5 h 10 min1,239 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 32 min128 subs | 2 h 07 min509 subs | 8 h 28 min2,034 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 55 min222 subs | 3 h 42 min888 subs | 15 h3,549 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 32 min369 subs | 6 h 09 min1,476 subs | 25 h5,902 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 2 h 51 min683 subs | 11 h2,730 subs | 45 h10,920 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 45 min of run time. The DWARF 3’s battery (rated about 5 h 30 min) 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 20000mAh 18W18 W PD input and it runs while charging; needs a C-to-C cable for PD.
- 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 3 →
How it frames
The Andromeda Galaxy is 178′ × 63′ across. The DWARF 3 frames 2.93° × 1.65° at 2.75″ per pixel, so it is 1.8× 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
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 44 min178 subs | 1 h 17 min310 subs | 3 h 42 min888 subs |
| 30 s | 41 min83 subs | 1 h 15 min150 subs | 3 h 39 min438 subs |
| 60 s | 40 min41 subs | 1 h 13 min74 subs | 3 h 38 min218 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the Andromeda Galaxy. It is a galaxy, and it shines right across the spectrum. A dual-band filter keeps two emission lines and throws the rest away, so most of the light you came for is being stopped along with the sky. From a Bortle 6 sky it would be roughly 10 times slower.
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 DwarfLab DWARF 3
Small pixels on a 35 mm f/4.3 lens give a sharper image than its aperture suggests, and EQ mode with 60 s subs makes it the read-noise winner in dark skies.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Three built-in filters: VIS, Astro (430 to 690 nm) and dual-band Hα 656 nm / OIII 501 nm.
Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 15 s and 60 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 Andromeda Galaxy from a DWARF 3? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Andromeda Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 12 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 4 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 3 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 24 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 3 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 6 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 23 min from Bortle 6
- Andromeda Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 32 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Andromeda Galaxy · All targets for the DWARF 3