How long to image the M62 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 7 min (106 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M62. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 28 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 4 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 44% 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 min16 subs | 4 min64 subs | 17 min255 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 1 min17 subs | 4 min65 subs | 17 min260 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 1 min17 subs | 4 min68 subs | 18 min270 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 min19 subs | 5 min74 subs | 20 min294 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 min21 subs | 6 min83 subs | 22 min331 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 min27 subs | 7 min106 subs | 28 min424 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 min38 subs | 10 min150 subs | 40 min600 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 min55 subs | 15 min219 subs | 58 min873 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 6 min91 subs | 24 min364 subs | 1 h 37 min1,455 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 9 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 M62 is 15′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it fills 44% of the frame’s short side.
About the M62
A bright but lopsided globular near the galactic centre, low from northern latitudes.
NGC 6266 · Globular cluster in Ophiuchus · magnitude 6.5 · 15′ · best in May, Jun, Jul. 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 M62 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M62 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 9 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 9 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 10 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 12 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 27 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 18 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 32 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M62 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6