How long to image the Antennae Galaxies with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 6 h 48 min (1,631 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Antennae Galaxies. A quick look takes 1 h 42 min; a showpiece 27 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 3 h 29 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 5% 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 | 47 min190 subs | 3 h 10 min760 subs | 13 h3,039 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 49 min197 subs | 3 h 17 min787 subs | 13 h3,146 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 52 min210 subs | 3 h 29 min838 subs | 14 h3,349 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 h240 subs | 4 h960 subs | 16 h3,839 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 12 min289 subs | 4 h 48 min1,154 subs | 19 h4,616 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 42 min408 subs | 6 h 48 min1,631 subs | 27 h6,522 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 39 min635 subs | 11 h2,539 subs | 42 h10,155 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 h 07 min988 subs | 16 h3,949 subs | 66 h15,795 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 h 15 min1,739 subs | 29 h6,956 subs | 120+ h27,824 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 8 h 50 min of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 4 h 25 min each. The DWARF II’s battery is rated at about 3 h, so each night needs an external power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time.)
- USB-C PD power bank 10000mAh 18W18 W PD input; runs while charging.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
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Everything that fits the DWARF II →
How it frames
The Antennae Galaxies is 5′ × 3′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it fills 5% of the frame’s short side.
About the Antennae Galaxies
Two colliding galaxies with long tidal tails. The cores are reachable; the antennae themselves are a dark-sky, long-integration task.
NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, Caldwell 60/61 · Galaxy in Corvus · magnitude 10.3 · 5′ × 3′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. 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 II
The original pocket scope. 24 mm aperture and tiny 1.45 µm pixels mean it is slow per pixel, so bin or downsample and be patient.
15 s is the hard maximum in any mode; DwarfLab recommends EQ mode at 15 s. Two built-in filters, VIS and Astro (IR-pass); no dual-band. The optional UHC filter is no longer sold.
The DWARF II uses fixed 15 s subs, so the only levers you have are the sky you shoot from, the filter, and total time.
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 Antennae Galaxies from a DWARF II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Antennae Galaxies with the ZWO Seestar S50: 2 h from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 2 h 11 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the ZWO Seestar S30: 2 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 2 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 2 h 54 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 38 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 4 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 54 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 4 h 15 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the Unistellar Odyssey: 8 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the Celestron Origin: 32 min from Bortle 6
- Antennae Galaxies with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 44 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Antennae Galaxies · All targets for the DWARF II