How long to image the Cone and Christmas Tree with the Celestron Origin Mark II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin Mark II needs about 2 h 23 min (859 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Cone and Christmas Tree. A quick look takes 36 min; a showpiece 9 h 32 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 39 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 is just over the frame at 1.3×.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 7 min44 subs | 29 min173 subs | 1 h 55 min690 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 8 min49 subs | 32 min194 subs | 2 h 09 min774 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 10 min59 subs | 39 min234 subs | 2 h 36 min934 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 14 min83 subs | 55 min330 subs | 3 h 40 min1,320 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 20 min121 subs | 1 h 20 min483 subs | 5 h 22 min1,932 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 36 min215 subs | 2 h 23 min859 subs | 9 h 32 min3,434 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 1 h 06 min394 subs | 4 h 22 min1,574 subs | 17 h6,296 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 52 min672 subs | 7 h 27 min2,685 subs | 30 h10,740 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 3 h 31 min1,264 subs | 14 h5,055 subs | 56 h20,217 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 3 h 06 min of run time. The Origin Mark II’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 January night.)
- portable power station 300W AC outletRuns the supplied 12 V adapter off-grid; dew shield and heater are 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 Mark II →
How it frames
The Cone and Christmas Tree is 60′ × 30′ across. The Origin Mark II frames 1.32° × 0.75° at 1.23″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.3×. Point at the part you want; the edges will fall outside the frame.
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. Celestron warns the f/2.2 optics saturate quickly without the filter. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 39 min234 subs | 1 h 20 min483 subs | 4 h 22 min1,574 subs |
| 15 s | 38 min152 subs | 1 h 20 min319 subs | 4 h 21 min1,046 subs |
| 30 s | 37 min74 subs | 1 h 19 min158 subs | 4 h 20 min521 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 39 min234 subs | 1 h 20 min483 subs | 4 h 22 min1,574 subs |
| dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer | 27 min165 subs | 40 min241 subs | 1 h 36 min575 subs |
The Origin Mark II has no built-in dual-band filter. Filter drawer takes 1.25-inch or 2-inch filters, including dual-band; Celestron sells an optional Nebula Filter. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.
About the Cone and Christmas Tree
A bright cluster shaped like a tree with the faint Cone Nebula at its tip and the Fox Fur beside it. The cluster is easy; the nebulosity is not.
NGC 2264 · Emission nebula in Monoceros · magnitude 3.9 · 60′ × 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 Celestron Origin Mark II
The Origin Mark II (late 2025): the same 6-inch f/2.2 RASA with an 8 MP IMX678 in place of the original 6 MP IMX178. Smaller pixels for finer detail, a quieter sensor, and still the fastest system here by a wide margin.
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. Celestron warns the f/2.2 optics saturate quickly without the filter. 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 Cone and Christmas Tree from a Origin Mark II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the ZWO Seestar S50: 4 h from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 4 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the ZWO Seestar S30: 4 h 43 min from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 4 h 51 min from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 4 h 52 min from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 3 h 56 min from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the DwarfLab Draco: 3 h 09 min from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 23 h from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the Vaonis Vespera II: 6 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 15 h from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 6 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 14 h from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 6 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the Unistellar Odyssey: 28 h from Bortle 6
- Cone and Christmas Tree with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 45 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Cone and Christmas Tree · All targets for the Origin Mark II