How long should I image the Western Veil Nebula with the Origin Mark II from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 54 min of total integration for a solid image, or 3 h 34 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 13 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin Mark II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 322 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 95 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Western Veil Nebula?

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 54 min to 24 min.

How long to image the Western Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin Mark II needs about 54 min (322 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Western Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 13 min; a showpiece 3 h 34 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 16 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 is 1.6× wider than the frame.

Western Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	3 min19 subs	12 min73 subs	48 min291 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	3 min21 subs	13 min81 subs	53 min321 subs
Bortle 3Rural	4 min24 subs	16 min95 subs	1 h 03 min379 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	5 min33 subs	22 min130 subs	1 h 26 min519 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	8 min47 subs	31 min186 subs	2 h 04 min742 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	13 min81 subs	54 min322 subs	3 h 34 min1,287 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	24 min146 subs	1 h 37 min582 subs	6 h 28 min2,326 subs
Bortle 8City	41 min247 subs	2 h 44 min985 subs	11 h3,939 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	1 h 17 min462 subs	5 h 07 min1,845 subs	20 h7,380 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 10 min of run time. The Origin Mark II’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.)

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How it frames

The Western Veil Nebula is 70′ × 6′ across. The Origin Mark II frames 1.32° × 0.75° at 1.23″ per pixel, so it is 1.6× wider than the frame. A mosaic, or choosing the part you want and letting the rest go, is how it gets shot on this scope.

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. Celestron warns the f/2.2 optics saturate quickly without the filter. Time for a solid image by sub length:

Sub length	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
10 s	16 min95 subs	31 min186 subs	1 h 37 min582 subs
15 s	15 min62 subs	31 min123 subs	1 h 37 min387 subs
30 s	15 min31 subs	30 min61 subs	1 h 36 min193 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	16 min95 subs	31 min186 subs	1 h 37 min582 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	12 min74 subs	17 min102 subs	37 min223 subs

The Origin Mark II has no built-in dual-band filter. Filter drawer takes 1.25-inch or 2-inch filters, including dual-band; Celestron sells an optional Nebula Filter. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.

About the Western Veil Nebula

A thin, bright filament of supernova shock running through the star 52 Cygni. A dual-band filter transforms it; without one it drowns in suburban skyglow.

NGC 6960, Witch’s Broom, Caldwell 34 · Supernova remnant in Cygnus · magnitude 7.0 · 70′ × 6′ · best in Jul, Aug, Sep. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.

Supernova remnants are emission-line objects, strong in both hydrogen-alpha and OIII, and their filaments are thin, so pixel scale matters as much as aperture. A dual-band filter is essential from any lit sky and still helps under a dark one. These are long-integration targets; plan on several sessions and stack across nights.

About the Celestron Origin Mark II

The Origin Mark II (late 2025): the same 6-inch f/2.2 RASA with an 8 MP IMX678 in place of the original 6 MP IMX178. Smaller pixels for finer detail, a quieter sensor, and still the fastest system here by a wide margin.

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.

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Imaged the Western Veil Nebula with your Origin Mark II? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Western Veil Nebula from a Origin Mark II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.

Same target, other telescopes

All telescopes for the Western Veil Nebula · All targets for the Origin Mark II