How long to image the M74 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 5 h 03 min (4,545 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M74. A quick look takes 1 h 16 min; a showpiece 20 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 h 52 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 | 40 min600 subs | 2 h 40 min2,397 subs | 11 h9,585 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 41 min616 subs | 2 h 44 min2,463 subs | 11 h9,849 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 43 min647 subs | 2 h 52 min2,587 subs | 11 h10,348 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 48 min723 subs | 3 h 13 min2,890 subs | 13 h11,557 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 56 min843 subs | 3 h 45 min3,369 subs | 15 h13,474 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 16 min1,137 subs | 5 h 03 min4,545 subs | 20 h18,178 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 1 h 53 min1,697 subs | 7 h 32 min6,785 subs | 30 h27,140 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 2 h 51 min2,566 subs | 11 h10,264 subs | 46 h41,054 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 4 h 55 min4,421 subs | 20 h17,683 subs | 79 h70,730 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 6 h 34 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 M74 is 10′ × 9.5′ 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 M74
A perfect face-on spiral with very low surface brightness, hence the nickname. One of the hardest Messier objects for small scopes.
NGC 628, Phantom Galaxy · Galaxy in Pisces · magnitude 9.4 · 10′ × 9.5′ · best in Sep, Oct, Nov. 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 M74 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M74 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 5 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 6 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 5 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 6 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 7 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 5 h 29 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the DwarfLab Draco: 4 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 19 h from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 5 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 12 h from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 12 h from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 23 h from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 59 min from Bortle 6