How long to image the Needle Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF mini needs about 1 h 06 min (263 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Needle Galaxy. A quick look takes 16 min; a showpiece 4 h 22 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 26 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 22% 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 | 5 min22 subs | 22 min88 subs | 1 h 28 min352 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 6 min24 subs | 23 min94 subs | 1 h 33 min373 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 6 min26 subs | 26 min104 subs | 1 h 43 min414 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 8 min32 subs | 32 min128 subs | 2 h 08 min512 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 10 min42 subs | 42 min167 subs | 2 h 47 min668 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 16 min66 subs | 1 h 06 min263 subs | 4 h 22 min1,050 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 28 min112 subs | 1 h 51 min445 subs | 7 h 25 min1,779 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 45 min182 subs | 3 h 02 min728 subs | 12 h2,910 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 23 min333 subs | 5 h 33 min1,331 subs | 22 h5,322 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 25 min of run time. The DWARF mini’s battery (rated about 3 h 30 min) 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.)
- USB-C PD power bank 10000mAh 20W7,000 mAh inside, about four hours; a PD bank extends the night.
- 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 mini →
How it frames
The Needle Galaxy is 16′ × 2′ across. The DWARF mini frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it fills 22% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 26 min104 subs | 42 min167 subs | 1 h 51 min445 subs |
| 30 s | 22 min45 subs | 38 min77 subs | 1 h 48 min216 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 36 min37 subs | 1 h 46 min106 subs |
| 90 s | 45 min30 subs | 45 min30 subs | 1 h 45 min71 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the Needle Galaxy. 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 12 times slower.
About the Needle Galaxy
The finest edge-on spiral in the northern sky, a thin needle with a central bulge and dust lane.
NGC 4565, Caldwell 38 · Galaxy in Coma Berenices · magnitude 9.6 · 16′ × 2′ · 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 mini
DwarfLab’s answer to the Seestar S30: same sensor and focal length, big pixels, dual-band filter built in, and 90 s subs in EQ mode. Sensitivity over megapixels.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Built-in Astro (430 to 690 nm), dark-frame and dual-band Hα / OIII filters; no plain VIS filter on the tele camera.
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 90 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 Needle Galaxy from a DWARF mini? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Needle Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 12 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 09 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 54 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 45 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 21 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 17 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 24 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Needle Galaxy · All targets for the DWARF mini