How long to image the Omega Centauri with the Unistellar Odyssey
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar Odyssey needs about 7 min (109 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the Omega Centauri. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 29 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 5 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it is just over the frame at 1.1×.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 1 min20 subs | 5 min80 subs | 21 min318 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 1 min21 subs | 5 min81 subs | 21 min322 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 1 min21 subs | 5 min82 subs | 22 min328 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 min22 subs | 6 min87 subs | 23 min345 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 2 min24 subs | 6 min93 subs | 25 min371 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 min28 subs | 7 min109 subs | 29 min435 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 min35 subs | 9 min140 subs | 37 min557 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 3 min47 subs | 12 min187 subs | 50 min747 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 5 min72 subs | 19 min288 subs | 1 h 17 min1,152 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 9 min of run time. The Odyssey’s battery (rated about 5 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.)
- USB power bank 20000mAh 5V 2.4AUnistellar says plain 5 V 2.4 A and warns against fast or adaptive chargers.
- 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 Odyssey →
How it frames
The Omega Centauri is 36′ across. The Odyssey frames 0.75° × 0.56° at 0.93″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.1×. Point at the part you want; the edges will fall outside the frame.
About the Omega Centauri
The largest and brightest globular in the sky, ten million stars. Trivially easy from the southern hemisphere, invisible from the UK.
NGC 5139, Caldwell 80 · Globular cluster in Centaurus · magnitude 3.7 · 36′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. Low or below the horizon from northern Europe; best from the southern US southwards.
Globular clusters are point sources packed tight, so they come quickly: the core resolves into stars within a handful of minutes on any smart scope. More time deepens the halo and pulls in the faint outer members. Use short subs so the core does not saturate into a white blob, and no filter.
About the Unistellar Odyssey
Unistellar’s compact 85 mm with autofocus and tiny pixels. Sharp, but the fine sampling costs time on faint extended targets. The Odyssey Pro is the same telescope with an eyepiece added, so these figures apply to both.
Fixed 4 s subs in Enhanced Vision; they cannot be changed. No filter option; Unistellar says third-party filters cannot be fitted to the Odyssey.
The Odyssey uses fixed 4 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 Omega Centauri from a Odyssey? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Omega Centauri with the ZWO Seestar S50: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the ZWO Seestar S30: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the Vaonis Vespera II: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Omega Centauri with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Omega Centauri · All targets for the Odyssey