How long to image the Triangulum Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 9 h 16 min (2,225 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Triangulum Galaxy. A quick look takes 2 h 19 min; a showpiece 37 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 4 h 34 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 68% 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 | 1 h 02 min247 subs | 4 h 07 min987 subs | 16 h3,947 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 1 h 04 min257 subs | 4 h 16 min1,025 subs | 17 h4,099 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 1 h 09 min275 subs | 4 h 34 min1,097 subs | 18 h4,387 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 h 19 min318 subs | 5 h 18 min1,271 subs | 21 h5,084 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 37 min387 subs | 6 h 27 min1,548 subs | 26 h6,189 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 h 19 min557 subs | 9 h 16 min2,225 subs | 37 h8,899 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 3 h 40 min879 subs | 15 h3,516 subs | 59 h14,064 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 5 h 45 min1,381 subs | 23 h5,521 subs | 92 h22,084 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 10 h2,450 subs | 41 h9,797 subs | 160+ h39,187 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 12 h of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 6 h 02 min each. The DWARF II’s battery is rated at about 3 h, so each night needs an external power bank. (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.
Affiliate links: the retailer pays us a small commission and you pay the same price. These are search links to the named product, not endorsements of a particular listing; check the listing matches your model.
Everything that fits the DWARF II →
How it frames
The Triangulum Galaxy is 73′ × 45′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it fills 68% of the frame’s short side.
About the Triangulum Galaxy
Big, face-on and low in surface brightness. Nearly as bright as M31 overall but spread thin, so it needs far more time. Its H II regions pop with a dual-band filter.
M33, NGC 598 · Galaxy in Triangulum · magnitude 5.7 · 73′ × 45′ · 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 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 Triangulum Galaxy from a DWARF II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Triangulum Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 2 h 42 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 2 h 57 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 2 h 50 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 3 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 3 h 55 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 2 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 2 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 42 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 6 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 2 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 5 h 46 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 11 h from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 59 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Triangulum Galaxy · All targets for the DWARF II