How long to image the 47 Tucanae with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 2 min (30 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the 47 Tucanae. A quick look takes < 1 min; a showpiece 6 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it only just fits, at 91% of the short side.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | < 1 min10 subs | 2 min30 subs | 6 min90 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | < 1 min10 subs | 2 min30 subs | 6 min90 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | < 1 min10 subs | 2 min30 subs | 6 min90 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | < 1 min10 subs | 2 min30 subs | 6 min90 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | < 1 min10 subs | 2 min30 subs | 6 min90 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | < 1 min10 subs | 2 min30 subs | 6 min97 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | < 1 min10 subs | 2 min33 subs | 9 min129 subs |
| Bortle 8City | < 1 min12 subs | 3 min45 subs | 12 min179 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 min18 subs | 5 min72 subs | 19 min286 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 3 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 47 Tucanae is 31′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it only just fits, at 91% of the short side. Centre it carefully: there is no room to crop back afterwards.
About the 47 Tucanae
The second-brightest globular, with a blazing core, next to the Small Magellanic Cloud. Far southern sky only.
NGC 104, Caldwell 106 · Globular cluster in Tucana · magnitude 4.0 · 31′ · best in Sep, Oct, Nov. Southern hemisphere only.
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 47 Tucanae from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- 47 Tucanae with the ZWO Seestar S50: 5 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the ZWO Seestar S30: 5 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 8 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the Vaonis Vespera II: 5 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 5 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the Unistellar Odyssey: 7 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- 47 Tucanae with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the 47 Tucanae · All targets for the eQuinox 2