How long to image the M53 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 31 min (472 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M53. A quick look takes 8 min; a showpiece 2 h 06 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 19 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 38% 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 | 4 min66 subs | 18 min264 subs | 1 h 10 min1,053 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 4 min68 subs | 18 min270 subs | 1 h 12 min1,079 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 5 min71 subs | 19 min282 subs | 1 h 15 min1,127 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 5 min78 subs | 21 min311 subs | 1 h 23 min1,244 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 6 min90 subs | 24 min358 subs | 1 h 35 min1,430 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 8 min118 subs | 31 min472 subs | 2 h 06 min1,886 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 11 min173 subs | 46 min689 subs | 3 h 04 min2,754 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 17 min257 subs | 1 h 08 min1,026 subs | 4 h 33 min4,103 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 29 min437 subs | 1 h 56 min1,745 subs | 7 h 45 min6,979 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 41 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 M53 is 13′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it fills 38% of the frame’s short side.
About the M53
A distant globular in Coma Berenices, one of the outer halo clusters. Modest but easy.
NGC 5024 · Globular cluster in Coma Berenices · magnitude 7.6 · 13′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Globular clusters are point sources packed tight, so they come quickly: the core resolves into stars within a handful of minutes on any smart scope. More time deepens the halo and pulls in the faint outer members. Use short subs so the core does not saturate into a white blob, and no filter.
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 M53 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M53 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 35 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 39 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 37 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 41 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 52 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 35 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the DwarfLab Draco: 29 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 35 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 34 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 15 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 2 h 24 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the Celestron Origin: 9 min from Bortle 6
- M53 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 13 min from Bortle 6