How long to image the M56 with the Unistellar Odyssey
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar Odyssey needs about 2 h 44 min (2,461 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M56. A quick look takes 41 min; a showpiece 11 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 52 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 26% 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 | 27 min402 subs | 1 h 47 min1,608 subs | 7 h 09 min6,431 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 27 min409 subs | 1 h 49 min1,634 subs | 7 h 16 min6,535 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 28 min421 subs | 1 h 52 min1,684 subs | 7 h 29 min6,734 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 30 min451 subs | 2 h1,804 subs | 8 h 01 min7,214 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 33 min499 subs | 2 h 13 min1,994 subs | 8 h 52 min7,975 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 41 min616 subs | 2 h 44 min2,461 subs | 11 h9,843 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 56 min838 subs | 3 h 43 min3,351 subs | 15 h13,402 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 19 min1,183 subs | 5 h 15 min4,732 subs | 21 h18,927 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 2 h 08 min1,920 subs | 8 h 32 min7,678 subs | 34 h30,712 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 3 h 33 min of run time. The Odyssey’s battery (rated about 5 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 power bank 20000mAh 5V 2.4AUnistellar says plain 5 V 2.4 A and warns against fast or adaptive chargers.
- 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 Odyssey →
How it frames
The M56 is 8.8′ across. The Odyssey frames 0.75° × 0.56° at 0.93″ per pixel, so it fills 26% of the frame’s short side.
About the M56
A small globular between Albireo and the Ring Nebula, set in a rich star field.
NGC 6779 · Globular cluster in Lyra · magnitude 8.3 · 8.8′ · best in Jun, Jul, Aug. 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 Odyssey
Unistellar’s compact 85 mm with autofocus and tiny pixels. Sharp, but the fine sampling costs time on faint extended targets. The Odyssey Pro is the same telescope with an eyepiece added, so these figures apply to both.
Fixed 4 s subs in Enhanced Vision; they cannot be changed. No filter option; Unistellar says third-party filters cannot be fitted to the Odyssey.
The Odyssey 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 M56 from a Odyssey? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M56 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 41 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 44 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 43 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 47 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 59 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 40 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the DwarfLab Draco: 33 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 2 h 17 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 41 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 39 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 26 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 36 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the Celestron Origin: 11 min from Bortle 6
- M56 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 15 min from Bortle 6