How long to image the Butterfly Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 8 min (33 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Butterfly Cluster. A quick look takes 3 min; a showpiece 33 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 8 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 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 23 min90 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 23 min90 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 23 min90 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 23 min94 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 min10 subs | 8 min30 subs | 26 min105 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 3 min10 subs | 8 min33 subs | 33 min132 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 3 min12 subs | 11 min46 subs | 46 min184 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 min17 subs | 16 min66 subs | 1 h 06 min264 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 min28 subs | 27 min109 subs | 1 h 49 min435 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 11 min of run time. The DWARF II’s battery (rated about 3 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 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.
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Everything that fits the DWARF II →
How it frames
The Butterfly Cluster is 25′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it fills 23% of the frame’s short side.
About the Butterfly Cluster
An open cluster whose brighter stars trace a butterfly shape. A southern summer target, low from northern Europe.
M6, NGC 6405 · Open cluster in Scorpius · magnitude 4.2 · 25′ · best in May, Jun, Jul. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Open clusters are the easiest targets in the sky. The stars are bright, so the aim is colour and tight stars rather than depth: short subs, no filter, and stop before the bright members saturate. The nominal time here gets you clean star colour; more integration only adds background stars.
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 Butterfly Cluster from a DWARF II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Butterfly Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S50: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S30: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera II: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 6 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the Unistellar Odyssey: 9 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Butterfly Cluster with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Butterfly Cluster · All targets for the DWARF II