How long to image the Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF 3 needs about 1 h 37 min (390 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Running Man Nebula. A quick look takes 24 min; a showpiece 6 h 29 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 35 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 20% 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 min29 subs | 29 min115 subs | 1 h 55 min460 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 8 min31 subs | 31 min124 subs | 2 h 03 min494 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 9 min35 subs | 35 min140 subs | 2 h 19 min558 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 11 min45 subs | 44 min178 subs | 2 h 58 min712 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 15 min60 subs | 1 h240 subs | 3 h 59 min957 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 24 min98 subs | 1 h 37 min390 subs | 6 h 29 min1,557 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 42 min169 subs | 2 h 49 min675 subs | 11 h2,700 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 10 min280 subs | 4 h 40 min1,119 subs | 19 h4,476 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 2 h 09 min517 subs | 8 h 36 min2,066 subs | 34 h8,262 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 06 min of run time. The DWARF 3’s battery (rated about 5 h 30 min) 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 PD power bank 20000mAh 18W18 W PD input and it runs while charging; needs a C-to-C cable for PD.
- 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 3 →
How it frames
The Running Man Nebula is 20′ × 10′ across. The DWARF 3 frames 2.93° × 1.65° at 2.75″ per pixel, so it fills 20% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 35 min140 subs | 1 h240 subs | 2 h 49 min675 subs |
| 30 s | 33 min66 subs | 58 min116 subs | 2 h 47 min334 subs |
| 60 s | 32 min32 subs | 57 min57 subs | 2 h 45 min166 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the Running Man Nebula. It is a reflection nebula, and it shines right across the spectrum. A dual-band filter keeps two emission lines and throws the rest away, so most of the light you came for is being stopped along with the sky. From a Bortle 6 sky it would be roughly 10 times slower.
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 DwarfLab DWARF 3
Small pixels on a 35 mm f/4.3 lens give a sharper image than its aperture suggests, and EQ mode with 60 s subs makes it the read-noise winner in dark skies.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Three built-in filters: VIS, Astro (430 to 690 nm) and dual-band Hα 656 nm / OIII 501 nm.
Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 15 s and 60 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 DWARF 3? 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 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: 18 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 DWARF 3