How long to image the M69 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 15 min (218 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M69. A quick look takes 4 min; a showpiece 58 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 9 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 29% 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 | 2 min33 subs | 9 min129 subs | 34 min514 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min33 subs | 9 min132 subs | 35 min525 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min35 subs | 9 min137 subs | 36 min545 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min38 subs | 10 min149 subs | 40 min596 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 min43 subs | 11 min169 subs | 45 min675 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 4 min55 subs | 15 min218 subs | 58 min871 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 5 min78 subs | 21 min311 subs | 1 h 23 min1,243 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 8 min114 subs | 30 min455 subs | 2 h 01 min1,820 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 13 min191 subs | 51 min763 subs | 3 h 23 min3,052 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 19 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 M69 is 9.8′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it fills 29% of the frame’s short side.
About the M69
A small, metal-rich globular near the Sagittarius teapot's base. Low from the north.
NGC 6637 · Globular cluster in Sagittarius · magnitude 7.6 · 9.8′ · 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 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 M69 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M69 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 18 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 18 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 19 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 25 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 56 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 37 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 16 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 36 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M69 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 6 min from Bortle 6