How long to image the Whirlpool Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF mini needs about 58 min (234 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Whirlpool Galaxy. A quick look takes 15 min; a showpiece 3 h 53 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 24 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 fills 15% 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 | 5 min21 subs | 20 min82 subs | 1 h 22 min328 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 5 min22 subs | 22 min87 subs | 1 h 27 min347 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 6 min24 subs | 24 min96 subs | 1 h 35 min382 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 7 min30 subs | 29 min117 subs | 1 h 57 min467 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 9 min38 subs | 38 min151 subs | 2 h 30 min602 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 15 min59 subs | 58 min234 subs | 3 h 53 min933 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 24 min98 subs | 1 h 38 min391 subs | 6 h 31 min1,564 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 40 min159 subs | 2 h 39 min636 subs | 11 h2,543 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 12 min290 subs | 4 h 49 min1,158 subs | 19 h4,631 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 16 min of run time. The DWARF mini’s battery (rated about 3 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 10000mAh 20W7,000 mAh inside, about four hours; a PD bank extends the night.
- 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 mini →
How it frames
The Whirlpool Galaxy is 11′ × 7′ across. The DWARF mini frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it fills 15% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 24 min96 subs | 38 min151 subs | 1 h 38 min391 subs |
| 30 s | 21 min42 subs | 34 min69 subs | 1 h 35 min190 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 33 min33 subs | 1 h 33 min94 subs |
| 90 s | 45 min30 subs | 45 min30 subs | 1 h 33 min62 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the Whirlpool 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 12 times slower.
About the Whirlpool Galaxy
The classic face-on spiral with its companion tugging at one arm. Small in a smart scope but bright; the arms appear within an hour, the tidal bridge needs several.
M51, NGC 5194 · Galaxy in Canes Venatici · magnitude 8.4 · 11′ × 7′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. 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 mini
DwarfLab’s answer to the Seestar S30: same sensor and focal length, big pixels, dual-band filter built in, and 90 s subs in EQ mode. Sensitivity over megapixels.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Built-in Astro (430 to 690 nm), dark-frame and dual-band Hα / OIII filters; no plain VIS filter on the tele camera.
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 90 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 Whirlpool Galaxy from a DWARF mini? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 59 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 25 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 48 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 59 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 11 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 56 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 52 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 16 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 21 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Whirlpool Galaxy · All targets for the DWARF mini