How long to image the Running Man Nebula with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 18 min (107 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Running Man Nebula. A quick look takes 4 min; a showpiece 1 h 11 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 39% 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 min31 subs | 21 min124 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min10 subs | 6 min34 subs | 22 min133 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min10 subs | 6 min38 subs | 25 min151 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min13 subs | 8 min49 subs | 32 min193 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 min17 subs | 11 min65 subs | 43 min260 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 4 min27 subs | 18 min107 subs | 1 h 11 min426 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 8 min47 subs | 31 min186 subs | 2 h 03 min741 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 13 min77 subs | 51 min308 subs | 3 h 25 min1,230 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 24 min143 subs | 1 h 35 min569 subs | 6 h 19 min2,273 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 23 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 Running Man Nebula is 20′ × 10′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 39% 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 min38 subs | 11 min65 subs | 31 min186 subs |
| 15 s | 8 min30 subs | 10 min42 subs | 30 min122 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 30 min61 subs |
About the Running Man Nebula
The blue reflection nebula just north of M42 with a dark figure running through it. Broadband only; it comes free in a long Orion stack.
NGC 1977, Sh2-279 · Reflection nebula in Orion · magnitude 7.0 · 20′ × 10′ · 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 Running Man Nebula from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 10 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 18 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 55 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 24 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Running Man Nebula · All targets for the Origin