How long to image the NGC 6914 with the Unistellar Odyssey
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Unistellar Odyssey needs about 26 h (23,167 subs of 4 s) for a solid image of the NGC 6914. A quick look takes 6 h 26 min; a showpiece 100+ h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 17 h. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 18% 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 | 4 h 04 min3,660 subs | 16 h14,639 subs | 65 h58,555 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 4 h 08 min3,726 subs | 17 h14,901 subs | 66 h59,603 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 4 h 17 min3,850 subs | 17 h15,397 subs | 68 h61,585 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 4 h 37 min4,150 subs | 18 h16,597 subs | 74 h66,386 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 5 h 08 min4,625 subs | 21 h18,499 subs | 82 h73,996 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 6 h 26 min5,792 subs | 26 h23,167 subs | 100+ h92,667 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 8 h 54 min8,016 subs | 36 h32,061 subs | 140+ h128,244 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 13 h11,468 subs | 51 h45,871 subs | 200+ h183,483 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 21 h18,831 subs | 84 h75,323 subs | 330+ h301,289 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 33 h of run time. That is more than one night: over 5 nights, about 6 h 42 min each. The Odyssey’s battery is rated at about 5 h, so each night needs an external power bank. (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 NGC 6914 is 6′ across. The Odyssey frames 0.75° × 0.56° at 0.93″ per pixel, so it fills 18% of the frame’s short side.
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 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 NGC 6914 from a Odyssey? 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 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 Odyssey