How long to image the NGC 2403 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF 3 needs about 4 h 40 min (1,122 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the NGC 2403. A quick look takes 1 h 10 min; a showpiece 19 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 32 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 21% 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 | 18 min74 subs | 1 h 13 min294 subs | 4 h 54 min1,176 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 20 min80 subs | 1 h 20 min320 subs | 5 h 19 min1,278 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 23 min92 subs | 1 h 32 min368 subs | 6 h 07 min1,470 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 30 min121 subs | 2 h 01 min484 subs | 8 h 04 min1,936 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 42 min168 subs | 2 h 47 min669 subs | 11 h2,675 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 10 min281 subs | 4 h 40 min1,122 subs | 19 h4,487 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 04 min497 subs | 8 h 16 min1,985 subs | 33 h7,940 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 3 h 28 min832 subs | 14 h3,326 subs | 55 h13,302 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 6 h 26 min1,546 subs | 26 h6,184 subs | 100+ h24,736 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 6 h 05 min of run time. The DWARF 3’s battery is rated at about 5 h 30 min, less near freezing, so the session needs an external 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 20000mAh 18W18 W PD input and it runs while charging; needs a C-to-C cable for PD.
- 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 3 →
How it frames
The NGC 2403 is 21′ × 12′ across. The DWARF 3 frames 2.93° × 1.65° at 2.75″ per pixel, so it fills 21% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 1 h 32 min368 subs | 2 h 47 min669 subs | 8 h 16 min1,985 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 25 min171 subs | 2 h 41 min322 subs | 8 h 10 min980 subs |
| 60 s | 1 h 22 min83 subs | 2 h 37 min158 subs | 8 h 06 min487 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the NGC 2403. It is a galaxy, 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 10 times slower.
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 DwarfLab DWARF 3
Small pixels on a 35 mm f/4.3 lens give a sharper image than its aperture suggests, and EQ mode with 60 s subs makes it the read-noise winner in dark skies.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Three built-in filters: VIS, Astro (430 to 690 nm) and dual-band Hα 656 nm / OIII 501 nm.
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 60 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 DWARF 3? 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 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: 51 min 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 DWARF 3