How long to image the Little Dumbbell with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 12 min (73 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Little Dumbbell. A quick look takes 3 min; a showpiece 48 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 5 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is skyglow, so a darker site or a filter helps more than longer subs. In this scope's field it fills 5% 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 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 17 min103 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 18 min108 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 20 min119 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min10 subs | 6 min37 subs | 24 min146 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 2 min12 subs | 8 min47 subs | 31 min187 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 3 min19 subs | 12 min73 subs | 48 min290 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 5 min31 subs | 20 min122 subs | 1 h 21 min485 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 8 min50 subs | 33 min197 subs | 2 h 11 min788 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 15 min90 subs | 1 h359 subs | 3 h 59 min1,434 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 16 min of run time. The Origin’s battery (rated about 6 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.)
- portable power station 300W AC outletRuns the supplied 12 V adapter in the field; the dew shield and heater are already built in.
- 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 Origin →
How it frames
The Little Dumbbell is 2.7′ × 1.8′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 5% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
10 s auto subs (15 s with the Nebula Filter); manual 1 to 30 s on the alt-az mount, longer only with the EQ wedge, and 60 s and up needs the StarSense Autoguider too. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 5 min30 subs | 8 min47 subs | 20 min122 subs |
| 15 s | 8 min30 subs | 8 min31 subs | 20 min80 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 20 min40 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 5 min30 subs | 8 min47 subs | 20 min122 subs |
| dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer | 5 min33 subs | 6 min38 subs | 10 min61 subs |
The Origin has no built-in dual-band filter. Filter drawer takes 1.25-inch or 2-inch filters, including dual-band; Celestron sells an optional Nebula Filter. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.
About the Little Dumbbell
A small, bright-per-pixel planetary in Perseus. Dual-band makes the two lobes and the faint wings much easier.
M76, NGC 650 · Planetary nebula in Perseus · magnitude 10.1 · 2.7′ × 1.8′ · best in Sep, Oct, Nov. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Planetary nebulae are small but intensely bright per pixel in OIII and H-alpha, so they respond very well to a dual-band filter and do not need much time for the main shell. The faint outer halos most of them have are a different proposition and need hours. Keep subs short if the central region saturates.
About the Celestron Origin
The first-generation Origin: a 6-inch f/2.2 RASA in a smart package and the fastest system here by a wide margin. Superseded by the Mark II in late 2025 and no longer sold new; Celestron offers a camera upgrade to the Mark II sensor.
10 s auto subs (15 s with the Nebula Filter); manual 1 to 30 s on the alt-az mount, longer only with the EQ wedge, and 60 s and up needs the StarSense Autoguider too. Filter drawer takes 1.25-inch or 2-inch filters, including dual-band; Celestron sells an optional Nebula Filter.
Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 10 s and 30 s subs is small; from a rural site it can halve the total time, especially with a dual-band filter in place.
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 Little Dumbbell from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Little Dumbbell with the ZWO Seestar S50: 33 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 36 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the ZWO Seestar S30: 37 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 39 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 32 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the DwarfLab Draco: 26 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 2 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Vaonis Vespera II: 45 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 40 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Unistellar Odyssey: 3 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 17 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Little Dumbbell · All targets for the Origin