How long to image the Cigar Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 1 h 57 min (467 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Cigar Galaxy. A quick look takes 29 min; a showpiece 7 h 46 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 02 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 10% 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 | 14 min57 subs | 57 min228 subs | 3 h 48 min912 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 15 min59 subs | 59 min236 subs | 3 h 55 min941 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 16 min63 subs | 1 h 02 min250 subs | 4 h 09 min997 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 18 min71 subs | 1 h 11 min283 subs | 4 h 43 min1,131 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 21 min84 subs | 1 h 24 min336 subs | 5 h 36 min1,343 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 29 min117 subs | 1 h 57 min467 subs | 7 h 46 min1,865 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 45 min179 subs | 2 h 59 min715 subs | 12 h2,859 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 09 min276 subs | 4 h 35 min1,101 subs | 18 h4,403 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 2 h481 subs | 8 h 01 min1,924 subs | 32 h7,695 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 32 min of run time. The DWARF II’s battery is rated at about 3 h, less near freezing, so the session needs an external power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time, and 30% off the battery for a February night.)
- USB-C PD power bank 10000mAh 18W18 W PD input; runs while charging.
- 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 DWARF II →
How it frames
The Cigar Galaxy is 11′ × 4′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it fills 10% of the frame’s short side.
About the Cigar Galaxy
An edge-on starburst galaxy with red hydrogen jets bursting from its core. Dual-band pulls the jets out of the glare.
M82, NGC 3034 · Galaxy in Ursa Major · magnitude 8.4 · 11′ × 4′ · best in Jan, Feb, Mar. 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 DwarfLab DWARF II
The original pocket scope. 24 mm aperture and tiny 1.45 µm pixels mean it is slow per pixel, so bin or downsample and be patient.
15 s is the hard maximum in any mode; DwarfLab recommends EQ mode at 15 s. Two built-in filters, VIS and Astro (IR-pass); no dual-band. The optional UHC filter is no longer sold.
The DWARF II uses fixed 15 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 Cigar Galaxy from a DWARF II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Cigar Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 35 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 38 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 36 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 40 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 50 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 34 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 28 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 35 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 17 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 33 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 31 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 2 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 9 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 13 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Cigar Galaxy · All targets for the DWARF II