How long to image the Ghost of Jupiter with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 5 min (30 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Ghost of Jupiter. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 15 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 5 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 small in the frame, about 17 pixels across.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 min10 subs | 5 min32 subs | 21 min125 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 2 min13 subs | 8 min49 subs | 32 min194 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 4 min22 subs | 14 min86 subs | 57 min343 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 7 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.)
- 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.
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How it frames
The Ghost of Jupiter is 0.42′ × 0.35′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it is small in the frame, about 17 pixels across. It is worth doing, but the result is a crop rather than a full frame; a longer focal length would resolve more of it.
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 | 5 min30 subs | 5 min30 subs | 5 min32 subs |
| 15 s | 8 min30 subs | 8 min30 subs | 8 min30 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 5 min30 subs | 5 min30 subs | 5 min32 subs |
| dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer | 5 min30 subs | 5 min30 subs | 5 min30 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 Ghost of Jupiter
A bright, blue-green planetary the apparent size of Jupiter. Very bright per pixel; keep subs short.
NGC 3242, Caldwell 59 · Planetary nebula in Hydra · magnitude 7.7 · 0.42′ × 0.35′ · best in Feb, Mar, Apr. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Planetary nebulae are small but intensely bright per pixel in OIII and H-alpha, so they respond very well to a dual-band filter and do not need much time for the main shell. The faint outer halos most of them have are a different proposition and need hours. Keep subs short if the central region saturates.
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 Ghost of Jupiter from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Ghost of Jupiter with the ZWO Seestar S50: 10 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 11 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the ZWO Seestar S30: 11 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 12 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 14 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 10 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 40 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the Vaonis Vespera II: 12 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 27 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 12 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 26 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 10 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the Unistellar Odyssey: 46 min from Bortle 6
- Ghost of Jupiter with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Ghost of Jupiter · All targets for the Origin