How long to image the Monkey Head Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF mini needs about 1 h 40 min (399 subs of 15 s with the built-in dual-band filter) for a solid image of the Monkey Head Nebula. A quick look takes 25 min; a showpiece 6 h 38 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 08 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 56% 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 | 16 min66 subs | 1 h 05 min262 subs | 4 h 22 min1,047 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 17 min67 subs | 1 h 06 min266 subs | 4 h 26 min1,064 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 17 min69 subs | 1 h 08 min274 subs | 4 h 34 min1,095 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 18 min74 subs | 1 h 13 min293 subs | 4 h 53 min1,172 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 20 min81 subs | 1 h 21 min324 subs | 5 h 23 min1,294 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 25 min100 subs | 1 h 40 min399 subs | 6 h 38 min1,593 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 34 min136 subs | 2 h 15 min541 subs | 9 h2,162 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 48 min191 subs | 3 h 10 min762 subs | 13 h3,046 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 17 min309 subs | 5 h 08 min1,233 subs | 21 h4,930 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 09 min of run time. The DWARF mini’s battery is rated at about 3 h 30 min, less near freezing, which is cutting it fine; take a power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time, and 30% off the battery for a January night.)
- USB-C PD power bank 10000mAh 20W7,000 mAh inside, about four hours; a PD bank extends the night.
- 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 mini →
How it frames
The Monkey Head Nebula is 40′ × 30′ across. The DWARF mini frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it fills 56% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 1 h 08 min274 subs | 1 h 21 min324 subs | 2 h 15 min541 subs |
| 30 s | 50 min100 subs | 1 h 02 min125 subs | 1 h 56 min233 subs |
| 60 s | 41 min41 subs | 53 min53 subs | 1 h 47 min108 subs |
| 90 s | 45 min30 subs | 50 min34 subs | 1 h 44 min70 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astro (no light-pollution filter) | 1 h239 subs | 1 h 40 min401 subs | 4 h 37 min1,110 subs |
| dual-band | 1 h 08 min274 subs | 1 h 21 min324 subs | 2 h 15 min541 subs |
About the Monkey Head Nebula
A round emission cloud on the Orion-Gemini border with a profile like a monkey's face. Moderately bright, good with dual-band.
NGC 2174, Sh2-252 · Emission nebula in Orion · magnitude 6.8 · 40′ × 30′ · best in Dec, Jan, Feb. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
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 DwarfLab DWARF mini
DwarfLab’s answer to the Seestar S30: same sensor and focal length, big pixels, dual-band filter built in, and 90 s subs in EQ mode. Sensitivity over megapixels.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Built-in Astro (430 to 690 nm), dark-frame and dual-band Hα / OIII filters; no plain VIS filter on the tele camera.
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 90 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 Monkey Head Nebula from a DWARF mini? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Monkey Head Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 53 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 58 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 2 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 2 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 9 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 42 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 6 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 2 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 5 h 46 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 11 h from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Monkey Head Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 59 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Monkey Head Nebula · All targets for the DWARF mini