How long to image the Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab Draco needs about 55 min (110 subs of 30 s) for a solid image of the Running Man Nebula. A quick look takes 14 min; a showpiece 3 h 40 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 21 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 27% 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 | 5 min10 subs | 18 min36 subs | 1 h 12 min144 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 5 min10 subs | 19 min39 subs | 1 h 16 min153 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 5 min11 subs | 21 min43 subs | 1 h 25 min170 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 7 min14 subs | 26 min53 subs | 1 h 46 min212 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 9 min18 subs | 35 min70 subs | 2 h 19 min278 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 14 min28 subs | 55 min110 subs | 3 h 40 min440 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 23 min47 subs | 1 h 33 min187 subs | 6 h 14 min748 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 38 min77 subs | 2 h 33 min307 subs | 10 h1,227 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 10 min141 subs | 4 h 41 min563 subs | 19 h2,249 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 11 min of run time. The Draco’s battery (rated about 5 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.)
- USB-C PD power bank 20000mAhRated 5 h on its 10,000 mAh battery. DwarfLab has not published the charging input, so check PD support before relying on it mid-session.
- 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 Draco →
How it frames
The Running Man Nebula is 20′ × 10′ across. The Draco frames 1.66° × 1.24° at 1.46″ per pixel, so it fills 27% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto Mode picks the exposure; Pro Mode allows up to 300 s, held by built-in guiding and field derotation. The 30 s default here is our assumption. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 s | 21 min43 subs | 35 min70 subs | 1 h 33 min187 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 32 min32 subs | 1 h 31 min91 subs |
| 120 s | 1 h30 subs | 1 h30 subs | 1 h 29 min45 subs |
| 300 s | 2 h 30 min30 subs | 2 h 30 min30 subs | 2 h 30 min30 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 11 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 Draco
DwarfLab’s big scope: 90 mm of folded f/3.8 optics, the most aperture of any Seestar or DWARF, a narrow 13 nm dual-band filter and 300 s subs with built-in guiding. A small-target scope; big nebulae need its mosaic mode.
Auto Mode picks the exposure; Pro Mode allows up to 300 s, held by built-in guiding and field derotation. The 30 s default here is our assumption. Built-in Hα + OIII dual-narrowband filter, 13 nm per line; the SHO Edition adds an SII option.
Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 30 s and 300 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 Draco? 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 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 Draco