How long to image the Fireworks Galaxy with the Celestron Origin
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 1 h 23 min (500 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Fireworks Galaxy. A quick look takes 21 min; a showpiece 5 h 33 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 21% 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 min32 subs | 21 min126 subs | 1 h 24 min503 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 6 min35 subs | 23 min138 subs | 1 h 31 min549 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 7 min40 subs | 26 min159 subs | 1 h 46 min636 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 9 min53 subs | 35 min212 subs | 2 h 21 min846 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 12 min74 subs | 49 min295 subs | 3 h 17 min1,180 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 21 min125 subs | 1 h 23 min500 subs | 5 h 33 min1,998 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 37 min223 subs | 2 h 28 min890 subs | 9 h 53 min3,558 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 02 min374 subs | 4 h 09 min1,495 subs | 17 h5,979 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 56 min697 subs | 7 h 44 min2,786 subs | 31 h11,143 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 48 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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Everything that fits the Origin →
How it frames
The Fireworks Galaxy is 11′ × 10′ across. The Origin frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it fills 21% 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 | 26 min159 subs | 49 min295 subs | 2 h 28 min890 subs |
| 15 s | 24 min98 subs | 47 min189 subs | 2 h 26 min586 subs |
| 30 s | 23 min46 subs | 45 min91 subs | 2 h 24 min289 subs |
About the Fireworks Galaxy
A face-on spiral famous for its supernovae, dimmed by Milky Way dust. Faint arms; the open cluster NGC 6939 sits nearby.
NGC 6946, Caldwell 12 · Galaxy in Cygnus · magnitude 9.6 · 11′ × 10′ · best in Jul, Aug, Sep. 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 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 Fireworks Galaxy from a Origin? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Fireworks Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 5 h 15 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 5 h 45 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 5 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 6 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 7 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 5 h 14 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 4 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 18 h from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 5 h 15 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 12 h from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 11 h from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 4 h 49 min from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 22 h from Bortle 6
- Fireworks Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 54 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Fireworks Galaxy · All targets for the Origin