How long to image the Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF mini needs about 1 h 31 min (366 subs of 15 s with the built-in dual-band filter) for a solid image of the Western Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 23 min; a showpiece 6 h 06 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 03 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it only just fits, at 98% of the short side.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 15 min61 subs | 1 h242 subs | 4 h 01 min965 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 15 min62 subs | 1 h 01 min246 subs | 4 h 05 min981 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 16 min64 subs | 1 h 03 min253 subs | 4 h 12 min1,009 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 17 min68 subs | 1 h 07 min270 subs | 4 h 30 min1,080 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 19 min75 subs | 1 h 14 min298 subs | 4 h 58 min1,191 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 23 min92 subs | 1 h 31 min366 subs | 6 h 06 min1,463 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 31 min124 subs | 2 h 04 min496 subs | 8 h 15 min1,982 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 44 min175 subs | 2 h 54 min697 subs | 12 h2,788 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 10 min282 subs | 4 h 42 min1,127 subs | 19 h4,507 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 59 min of run time. The DWARF mini’s battery (rated about 3 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 10000mAh 20W7,000 mAh inside, about four hours; a PD bank extends the night.
- 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 mini →
How it frames
The Western Veil Nebula is 70′ × 6′ across. The DWARF mini frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it only just fits, at 98% of the short side. Centre it carefully: there is no room to crop back afterwards.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 1 h 03 min253 subs | 1 h 14 min298 subs | 2 h 04 min496 subs |
| 30 s | 46 min93 subs | 57 min115 subs | 1 h 47 min214 subs |
| 60 s | 38 min38 subs | 49 min49 subs | 1 h 38 min99 subs |
| 90 s | 45 min30 subs | 46 min31 subs | 1 h 36 min64 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astro (no light-pollution filter) | 55 min219 subs | 1 h 32 min367 subs | 4 h 13 min1,014 subs |
| dual-band | 1 h 03 min253 subs | 1 h 14 min298 subs | 2 h 04 min496 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 mini
DwarfLab’s answer to the Seestar S30: same sensor and focal length, big pixels, dual-band filter built in, and 90 s subs in EQ mode. Sensitivity over megapixels.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Built-in Astro (430 to 690 nm), dark-frame and dual-band Hα / OIII filters; no plain VIS filter on the tele camera.
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 90 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 mini? 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 3: 1 h 55 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 mini