How long to image the Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF 3 needs about 1 h 55 min (460 subs of 15 s with the built-in dual-band filter) for a solid image of the Western Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 29 min; a showpiece 7 h 40 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 11 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 71% 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 | 17 min67 subs | 1 h 07 min268 subs | 4 h 28 min1,071 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 17 min69 subs | 1 h 08 min274 subs | 4 h 34 min1,095 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 18 min72 subs | 1 h 11 min285 subs | 4 h 45 min1,139 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 19 min78 subs | 1 h 18 min312 subs | 5 h 12 min1,248 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 22 min89 subs | 1 h 29 min355 subs | 5 h 55 min1,419 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 29 min115 subs | 1 h 55 min460 subs | 7 h 40 min1,840 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 41 min166 subs | 2 h 45 min661 subs | 11 h2,642 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 01 min243 subs | 4 h 03 min972 subs | 16 h3,887 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 42 min409 subs | 6 h 49 min1,636 subs | 27 h6,542 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 29 min of run time. The DWARF 3’s battery (rated about 5 h 30 min) 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.)
- USB-C PD power bank 20000mAh 18W18 W PD input and it runs while charging; needs a C-to-C cable for PD.
- 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 3 →
How it frames
The Western Veil Nebula is 70′ × 6′ across. The DWARF 3 frames 2.93° × 1.65° at 2.75″ per pixel, so it fills 71% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 1 h 11 min285 subs | 1 h 29 min355 subs | 2 h 45 min661 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 01 min123 subs | 1 h 19 min158 subs | 2 h 35 min310 subs |
| 60 s | 56 min56 subs | 1 h 13 min74 subs | 2 h 30 min150 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astro (no light-pollution filter) | 1 h 12 min287 subs | 2 h 09 min516 subs | 6 h 18 min1,514 subs |
| dual-band | 1 h 11 min285 subs | 1 h 29 min355 subs | 2 h 45 min661 subs |
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 DwarfLab DWARF 3
Small pixels on a 35 mm f/4.3 lens give a sharper image than its aperture suggests, and EQ mode with 60 s subs makes it the read-noise winner in dark skies.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Three built-in filters: VIS, Astro (430 to 690 nm) and dual-band Hα 656 nm / OIII 501 nm.
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 60 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 Western Veil Nebula from a DWARF 3? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 33 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 44 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 52 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 8 h 29 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 5 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 2 h 21 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 5 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 15 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 10 h from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 39 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 54 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Western Veil Nebula · All targets for the DWARF 3