How long to image the M79 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 14 min (206 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the M79. A quick look takes 3 min; a showpiece 55 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 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 | 2 min31 subs | 8 min123 subs | 33 min489 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min32 subs | 8 min125 subs | 33 min500 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min33 subs | 9 min130 subs | 35 min519 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min36 subs | 9 min142 subs | 38 min566 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 min40 subs | 11 min160 subs | 43 min640 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 3 min52 subs | 14 min206 subs | 55 min822 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 5 min73 subs | 19 min292 subs | 1 h 18 min1,168 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 7 min107 subs | 28 min427 subs | 1 h 54 min1,706 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 12 min179 subs | 48 min714 subs | 3 h 10 min2,853 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 18 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, and 30% off the battery for a December night.)
- 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.
- 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 eQuinox 2 →
How it frames
The M79 is 9′ 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 M79
A winter globular below Orion, unusual for the season. Low but compact.
NGC 1904 · Globular cluster in Lepus · magnitude 7.7 · 9′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. 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 M79 from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M79 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 16 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 18 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 23 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 16 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 53 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 16 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 35 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 34 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M79 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 6 min from Bortle 6