How long to image the Tarantula Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar eQuinox 2 needs about 42 min (636 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the Tarantula Nebula. A quick look takes 11 min; a showpiece 2 h 50 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 25 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it is just over the frame at 1.2×.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 6 min88 subs | 23 min349 subs | 1 h 33 min1,396 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 6 min90 subs | 24 min358 subs | 1 h 35 min1,432 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 6 min94 subs | 25 min375 subs | 1 h 40 min1,498 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 7 min104 subs | 28 min415 subs | 1 h 51 min1,660 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 8 min120 subs | 32 min479 subs | 2 h 08 min1,916 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 11 min159 subs | 42 min636 subs | 2 h 50 min2,544 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 16 min234 subs | 1 h 02 min936 subs | 4 h 09 min3,741 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 23 min350 subs | 1 h 33 min1,400 subs | 6 h 13 min5,599 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 40 min598 subs | 2 h 39 min2,391 subs | 11 h9,563 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 55 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, and 30% off the battery for a December night.)
- 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.
- 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 eQuinox 2 →
How it frames
The Tarantula Nebula is 40′ × 25′ across. The eQuinox 2 frames 0.76° × 0.57° at 1.33″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.2×. Point at the part you want; the edges will fall outside the frame.
Filters
The Tarantula Nebula is an emission target, where a dual-band filter would normally cut the time several-fold from a lit sky, but the eQuinox 2 has no dual-band option: 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 figures above are for the No filter position, and a darker sky is the lever that remains.
About the Tarantula Nebula
The giant star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, bright enough to see naked-eye from another galaxy. Far south only.
NGC 2070, Caldwell 103, 30 Doradus · Emission nebula in Dorado · magnitude 8.0 · 40′ × 25′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. Southern hemisphere only.
Emission nebulae glow in a few narrow lines, mostly hydrogen-alpha (deep red) and doubly ionised oxygen (teal). A dual-band filter passes those lines and blocks most skyglow, which is why it cuts the time needed from a suburban sky so dramatically. Use it. From a genuinely dark site the gain is smaller because there is less skyglow to block, and read noise becomes the limit, which is where longer subs (EQ mode, or Expert Mode on a Vespera) earn their keep.
Stars lose colour through a dual-band filter; a short broadband stack blended in fixes that if you care.
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 Tarantula Nebula from a eQuinox 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Tarantula Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 32 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 35 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 36 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 38 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 40 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 31 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 25 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 2 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 47 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 46 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 45 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 3 h 15 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 13 min from Bortle 6
- Tarantula Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 17 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Tarantula Nebula · All targets for the eQuinox 2