How long to image the NGC 2403 with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 51 min (307 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the NGC 2403. A quick look takes 13 min; a showpiece 3 h 24 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 16 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 41% 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 | 3 min20 subs | 13 min79 subs | 52 min314 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 4 min22 subs | 14 min86 subs | 57 min342 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 4 min25 subs | 16 min99 subs | 1 h 06 min395 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 5 min33 subs | 22 min131 subs | 1 h 27 min523 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 8 min46 subs | 30 min182 subs | 2 h 01 min727 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 13 min77 subs | 51 min307 subs | 3 h 24 min1,226 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 23 min137 subs | 1 h 31 min545 subs | 6 h 03 min2,177 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 38 min229 subs | 2 h 32 min914 subs | 10 h3,654 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 11 min426 subs | 4 h 43 min1,701 subs | 19 h6,804 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 06 min of run time. The Origin’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 in the field; the dew shield and heater are already 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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How it frames
The NGC 2403 is 21′ × 12′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 41% of the frame’s short side.
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. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 16 min99 subs | 30 min182 subs | 1 h 31 min545 subs |
| 15 s | 15 min61 subs | 29 min117 subs | 1 h 29 min358 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 28 min56 subs | 1 h 28 min177 subs |
About the NGC 2403
A big, loose spiral in Camelopardalis that looks like a small M33, with bright H II regions dual-band can pick out.
Caldwell 7 · Galaxy in Camelopardalis · magnitude 8.9 · 21′ × 12′ · best in Dec, Jan, Feb. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Galaxies are broadband targets: their light is mostly starlight spread across the spectrum, so a dual-band filter throws most of it away and makes things slower, not faster. Shoot without a filter (or with a plain UV/IR cut) and rely on total time and a dark sky. The core of a galaxy is usually many times brighter than its outer disc, so a short stack shows the nucleus long before the arms; the figures here are for the arms and disc, not the core.
Field rotation in Alt-Az mode crops the edges of the stack over a long session, so on a big galaxy re-centre now and then or use EQ mode where your scope supports it.
About the Celestron Origin
The first-generation Origin: a 6-inch f/2.2 RASA in a smart package and the fastest system here by a wide margin. Superseded by the Mark II in late 2025 and no longer sold new; Celestron offers a camera upgrade to the Mark II sensor.
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. 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 NGC 2403 from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- NGC 2403 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 3 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 3 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 3 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 3 h 44 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 4 h 40 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 3 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the DwarfLab Draco: 2 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 11 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 3 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 7 h 14 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 3 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 6 h 53 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 57 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 14 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 2403 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 10 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the NGC 2403 · All targets for the Origin