How long to image the NGC 6914 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF mini needs about 6 h 02 min (1,450 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the NGC 6914. A quick look takes 1 h 31 min; a showpiece 24 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 h 14 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 8% 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 | 28 min112 subs | 1 h 52 min447 subs | 7 h 27 min1,787 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 30 min120 subs | 1 h 59 min478 subs | 7 h 57 min1,910 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 33 min134 subs | 2 h 14 min536 subs | 8 h 56 min2,143 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 42 min170 subs | 2 h 49 min677 subs | 11 h2,708 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 56 min226 subs | 3 h 45 min901 subs | 15 h3,603 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 31 min363 subs | 6 h 02 min1,450 subs | 24 h5,798 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 36 min624 subs | 10 h2,496 subs | 42 h9,982 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 h 17 min1,030 subs | 17 h4,120 subs | 69 h16,478 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 h 54 min1,896 subs | 32 h7,583 subs | 130+ h30,331 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 7 h 51 min of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 3 h 56 min each. The DWARF mini’s battery is rated at about 3 h 30 min, 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 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 NGC 6914 is 6′ across. The DWARF mini frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it fills 8% 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 | 2 h 14 min536 subs | 3 h 45 min901 subs | 10 h2,496 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 53 min227 subs | 3 h 25 min410 subs | 10 h1,207 subs |
| 60 s | 1 h 43 min104 subs | 3 h 14 min195 subs | 9 h 53 min594 subs |
| 90 s | 1 h 40 min67 subs | 3 h 11 min128 subs | 9 h 50 min394 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the NGC 6914. It is a reflection nebula, 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 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 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 NGC 6914 from a DWARF mini? 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 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: 1 h 36 min 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 DWARF mini