How long to image the M66 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 36 min (544 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M66. A quick look takes 9 min; a showpiece 2 h 25 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 22 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 | 5 min77 subs | 20 min307 subs | 1 h 22 min1,227 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 5 min79 subs | 21 min314 subs | 1 h 24 min1,256 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 5 min82 subs | 22 min328 subs | 1 h 27 min1,311 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 6 min91 subs | 24 min362 subs | 1 h 36 min1,445 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 7 min104 subs | 28 min414 subs | 1 h 50 min1,656 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 9 min136 subs | 36 min544 subs | 2 h 25 min2,175 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 13 min198 subs | 53 min792 subs | 3 h 31 min3,165 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 20 min294 subs | 1 h 18 min1,176 subs | 5 h 13 min4,701 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 33 min499 subs | 2 h 13 min1,994 subs | 8 h 52 min7,976 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 47 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 M66 is 9′ × 4′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it fills 26% of the frame’s short side.
About the M66
The brightest of the Leo Triplet, with asymmetric arms from a past encounter.
NGC 3627 · Galaxy in Leo · magnitude 8.9 · 9′ × 4′ · best in Feb, Mar, Apr. 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 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 M66 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M66 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 41 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 45 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 43 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 47 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h from Bortle 6
- M66 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 41 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the DwarfLab Draco: 34 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 2 h 18 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 41 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 39 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 2 h 46 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the Celestron Origin: 11 min from Bortle 6
- M66 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 15 min from Bortle 6