How long to image the Fireworks Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 18 h (4,346 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Fireworks Galaxy. A quick look takes 4 h 32 min; a showpiece 72 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 8 h 51 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 10% 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 | 1 h 59 min477 subs | 7 h 56 min1,906 subs | 32 h7,622 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 h 04 min496 subs | 8 h 15 min1,981 subs | 33 h7,922 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 h 13 min531 subs | 8 h 51 min2,123 subs | 35 h8,489 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 h 34 min617 subs | 10 h2,466 subs | 41 h9,863 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 h 08 min753 subs | 13 h3,011 subs | 50 h12,041 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 4 h 32 min1,087 subs | 18 h4,346 subs | 72 h17,383 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 7 h 11 min1,723 subs | 29 h6,891 subs | 110+ h27,564 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 11 h2,711 subs | 45 h10,843 subs | 180+ h43,371 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 20 h4,818 subs | 80 h19,271 subs | 320+ h77,081 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 24 h of run time. That is more than one night: over 4 nights, about 5 h 53 min each. The DWARF II’s battery is rated at about 3 h, 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 18W18 W PD input; runs while charging.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
Affiliate links: the retailer pays us a small commission and you pay the same price. These are search links to the named product, not endorsements of a particular listing; check the listing matches your model.
Everything that fits the DWARF II →
How it frames
The Fireworks Galaxy is 11′ × 10′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it fills 10% of the frame’s short side.
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 DwarfLab DWARF II
The original pocket scope. 24 mm aperture and tiny 1.45 µm pixels mean it is slow per pixel, so bin or downsample and be patient.
15 s is the hard maximum in any mode; DwarfLab recommends EQ mode at 15 s. Two built-in filters, VIS and Astro (IR-pass); no dual-band. The optional UHC filter is no longer sold.
The DWARF II uses fixed 15 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 Fireworks Galaxy from a DWARF II? 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 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: 1 h 23 min 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 DWARF II