How long should I image the Carina Nebula with the Origin Mark II from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 5 min of total integration for a solid image, or 18 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 2 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin Mark II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 30 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 30 from Bortle 3.

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

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 5 min to 5 min.

How long to image the Carina Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin Mark II needs about 5 min (30 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Carina Nebula. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 18 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 2.7× wider than the frame.

Carina Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 10 s subs.
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	18 min109 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	2 min12 subs	8 min46 subs	30 min181 subs
Bortle 8City	3 min19 subs	12 min73 subs	49 min292 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	6 min34 subs	22 min133 subs	1 h 28 min530 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 7 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.)

portable power station 300W AC outletRuns the supplied 12 V adapter off-grid; dew shield and heater are built in.
Amazon UK Amazon US Jackery UK
red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
Amazon UK Amazon US

Affiliate links: the retailer pays us a small commission and you pay the same price. These are search links to the named product, not endorsements of a particular listing; check the listing matches your model.

Everything that fits the Origin Mark II →

How it frames

The Carina Nebula is 120′ across. The Origin Mark II frames 1.32° × 0.75° at 1.23″ per pixel, so it is 2.7× wider than the frame. A mosaic, or choosing the part you want and letting the rest go, is how it gets shot on this scope.

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	5 min30 subs	5 min30 subs	8 min46 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

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	5 min30 subs	5 min30 subs	8 min46 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	5 min30 subs	5 min30 subs	5 min30 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 Carina Nebula

Four times the size and brightness of the Orion Nebula, the best emission nebula in the sky. Southern hemisphere only, and easy from anywhere it rises.

NGC 3372, Caldwell 92, Eta Carinae Nebula · Emission nebula in Carina · magnitude 1.0 · 120′ · best in Feb, Mar, Apr. Low or below the horizon from northern Europe; best from the southern US southwards.

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.

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.

Where to buy the Origin Mark IICelestron store Direct Amazon UK Amazon USThe Celestron store link is a plain link; the others are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

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

Have an image of the Carina Nebula 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

All telescopes for the Carina Nebula · All targets for the Origin Mark II