How long to image the NGC 1333 with the Celestron Origin Mark II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin Mark II needs about 2 h 12 min (791 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the NGC 1333. A quick look takes 33 min; a showpiece 8 h 47 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 38 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 13% 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 | 7 min45 subs | 29 min177 subs | 1 h 57 min705 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 8 min49 subs | 33 min196 subs | 2 h 10 min781 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 10 min58 subs | 38 min231 subs | 2 h 34 min923 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 13 min80 subs | 53 min318 subs | 3 h 31 min1,269 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 19 min114 subs | 1 h 16 min455 subs | 5 h 03 min1,818 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 33 min198 subs | 2 h 12 min791 subs | 8 h 47 min3,163 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 1 h358 subs | 3 h 59 min1,432 subs | 16 h5,727 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 41 min607 subs | 6 h 44 min2,427 subs | 27 h9,707 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 3 h 10 min1,138 subs | 13 h4,549 subs | 51 h18,196 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 51 min of run time. The Origin Mark II’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 November night.)
- portable power station 300W AC outletRuns the supplied 12 V adapter off-grid; dew shield and heater are 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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How it frames
The NGC 1333 is 6′ × 3′ across. The Origin Mark II frames 1.32° × 0.75° at 1.23″ per pixel, so it fills 13% 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. Celestron warns the f/2.2 optics saturate quickly without the filter. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 38 min231 subs | 1 h 16 min455 subs | 3 h 59 min1,432 subs |
| 15 s | 38 min151 subs | 1 h 15 min300 subs | 3 h 58 min951 subs |
| 30 s | 37 min74 subs | 1 h 14 min149 subs | 3 h 57 min474 subs |
About the NGC 1333
A blue reflection nebula amid a maze of dark dust and red Herbig-Haro jets. Broadband, dark sky, long stack.
Perseus Molecular Cloud · Reflection nebula in Perseus · magnitude 9.5 · 6′ × 3′ · best in Oct, Nov, Dec. 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 Mark II
The Origin Mark II (late 2025): the same 6-inch f/2.2 RASA with an 8 MP IMX678 in place of the original 6 MP IMX178. Smaller pixels for finer detail, a quieter sensor, and still the fastest system here by a wide margin.
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. Celestron warns the f/2.2 optics saturate quickly without the filter. 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 NGC 1333 from a Origin Mark II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- NGC 1333 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 6 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 6 h 38 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 6 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 7 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 6 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the DwarfLab Draco: 4 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 21 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 6 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 14 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 13 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 5 h 33 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 26 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the NGC 1333 · All targets for the Origin Mark II