How long to image the NGC 6914 with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 1 h 36 min (577 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the NGC 6914. A quick look takes 24 min; a showpiece 6 h 25 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 31 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 12% 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 | 6 min38 subs | 25 min151 subs | 1 h 40 min602 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 7 min41 subs | 27 min164 subs | 1 h 49 min654 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 8 min48 subs | 31 min189 subs | 2 h 05 min753 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 10 min63 subs | 41 min249 subs | 2 h 45 min993 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 14 min86 subs | 57 min344 subs | 3 h 49 min1,374 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 24 min145 subs | 1 h 36 min577 subs | 6 h 25 min2,308 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 43 min256 subs | 2 h 50 min1,023 subs | 11 h4,089 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 11 min429 subs | 4 h 46 min1,714 subs | 19 h6,853 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 2 h 13 min797 subs | 8 h 51 min3,187 subs | 35 h12,748 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 05 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 NGC 6914 is 6′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 12% of the frame’s short side.
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 | 31 min189 subs | 57 min344 subs | 2 h 50 min1,023 subs |
| 15 s | 29 min117 subs | 55 min220 subs | 2 h 48 min673 subs |
| 30 s | 27 min54 subs | 53 min106 subs | 2 h 46 min332 subs |
About the NGC 6914
Blue reflection patches floating on a sea of red hydrogen in Cygnus. Broadband for the blue; dual-band would remove the point.
vdB 131/132 · Reflection nebula in Cygnus · magnitude 9.0 · 6′ · best in Jul, Aug, Sep. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Reflection nebulae are starlight scattered by dust, so they are broadband and blue. A dual-band filter removes almost all of it; do not use one. These are among the faintest structures a smart scope can attempt and the figures run long. A dark sky matters more here than for any other type, and the Moon must be down.
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 NGC 6914 from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- NGC 6914 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 6 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 6 h 38 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 6 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 7 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 6 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the DwarfLab Draco: 4 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 21 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 6 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 14 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 13 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 5 h 33 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 26 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 2 h 12 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the NGC 6914 · All targets for the Origin