How long should I image the Pacman Nebula with the Origin from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 43 min of total integration for a solid image, or 2 h 51 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 11 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin?

At the default 10 s sub length, 257 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 84 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Pacman Nebula?

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 43 min to 22 min.

How long to image the Pacman Nebula with the Celestron Origin

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 43 min (257 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Pacman Nebula. A quick look takes 11 min; a showpiece 2 h 51 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 14 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 68% of the frame’s short side.

Pacman Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	3 min17 subs	11 min67 subs	45 min268 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	3 min19 subs	12 min73 subs	48 min291 subs
Bortle 3Rural	3 min21 subs	14 min84 subs	56 min335 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	5 min28 subs	18 min111 subs	1 h 14 min442 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	6 min39 subs	25 min153 subs	1 h 42 min611 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	11 min65 subs	43 min257 subs	2 h 51 min1,026 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	19 min114 subs	1 h 16 min455 subs	5 h 03 min1,817 subs
Bortle 8City	32 min191 subs	2 h 07 min762 subs	8 h 28 min3,046 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	59 min355 subs	3 h 56 min1,417 subs	16 h5,666 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 56 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.)

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How it frames

The Pacman Nebula is 35′ × 30′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 68% 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	14 min84 subs	25 min153 subs	1 h 16 min455 subs
15 s	13 min52 subs	24 min98 subs	1 h 15 min299 subs
30 s	15 min30 subs	23 min47 subs	1 h 14 min148 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	14 min84 subs	25 min153 subs	1 h 16 min455 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	13 min81 subs	17 min102 subs	32 min194 subs

The Origin 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 Pacman Nebula

A bright emission nebula with a dark lane biting into it. Compact, bright, and excellent with a dual-band filter from suburban skies.

NGC 281 · Emission nebula in Cassiopeia · magnitude 7.4 · 35′ × 30′ · best in Sep, Oct, Nov. 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

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.

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Imaged the Pacman Nebula with your Origin? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Pacman Nebula from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.

Same target, other telescopes

All telescopes for the Pacman Nebula · All targets for the Origin