How long to image the M78 with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 17 min (100 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M78. A quick look takes 4 min; a showpiece 1 h 07 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 6 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 16% 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 min33 subs | 21 min129 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min10 subs | 6 min35 subs | 23 min138 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min10 subs | 6 min39 subs | 26 min154 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min12 subs | 8 min48 subs | 32 min192 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 min16 subs | 10 min63 subs | 42 min252 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 4 min25 subs | 17 min100 subs | 1 h 07 min400 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 7 min43 subs | 28 min171 subs | 1 h 54 min683 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 12 min71 subs | 47 min281 subs | 3 h 07 min1,122 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 21 min129 subs | 1 h 26 min515 subs | 5 h 43 min2,058 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 22 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, and 30% off the battery for a December night.)
- 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.
- hand warmers long lastingAir-activated packs give hours of heat for the person; winter nights are long and you spend most of them standing still.
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Everything that fits the Origin →
How it frames
The M78 is 8′ × 6′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 16% 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 | 6 min39 subs | 10 min63 subs | 28 min171 subs |
| 15 s | 8 min30 subs | 10 min41 subs | 28 min113 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 28 min56 subs |
About the M78
The brightest reflection nebula in the sky, blue dust lit by young stars in Orion's belt. No filter; it is starlight.
NGC 2068 · Reflection nebula in Orion · magnitude 8.3 · 8′ × 6′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Reflection nebulae are starlight scattered by dust, so they are broadband and blue. A dual-band filter removes almost all of it; do not use one. These are among the faintest structures a smart scope can attempt and the figures run long. A dark sky matters more here than for any other type, and the Moon must be down.
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 M78 from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M78 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 09 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the DwarfLab Draco: 52 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h from Bortle 6
- M78 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 56 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- M78 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 23 min from Bortle 6