How long to image the M32 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 18 min (266 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M32. A quick look takes 4 min; a showpiece 1 h 11 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 11 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 23% 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 | 3 min40 subs | 10 min157 subs | 42 min626 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 3 min40 subs | 11 min160 subs | 43 min640 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 3 min42 subs | 11 min167 subs | 44 min665 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 3 min46 subs | 12 min182 subs | 48 min726 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 min52 subs | 14 min206 subs | 55 min823 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 4 min67 subs | 18 min266 subs | 1 h 11 min1,061 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 6 min95 subs | 25 min379 subs | 1 h 41 min1,514 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 9 min139 subs | 37 min555 subs | 2 h 28 min2,218 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 15 min233 subs | 1 h 02 min930 subs | 4 h 08 min3,719 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 23 min of run time. The eQuinox 2’s battery (rated about 11 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 power bank 20000mAh 5V 2AUnistellar asks for a 5 V 2 A output; PD is not needed.
- 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 eQuinox 2 →
How it frames
The M32 is 8′ × 6′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it fills 23% of the frame’s short side.
About the M32
The compact elliptical companion of Andromeda, sitting on its disc. Appears in every M31 frame.
NGC 221 · Galaxy in Andromeda · magnitude 8.1 · 8′ × 6′ · 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 Unistellar eQuinox 2
A 114 mm Newtonian with five times the light grasp of a 50 mm refractor. Fixed 4 s subs put it in read-noise territory under dark skies, but the aperture carries it. The published field is 45.6′ × 34.2′, a crop of the sensor.
Fixed 4 s subs in Enhanced Vision; they cannot be changed. No built-in filter. Unistellar sells only a solar filter and says a third-party filter is at your own risk and voids the warranty.
The eQuinox 2 uses fixed 4 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 M32 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M32 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 22 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 21 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 24 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 30 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the DwarfLab Draco: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 45 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 43 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 8 min from Bortle 6