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

About 1 h 13 min of total integration for a solid image, or 4 h 54 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 18 min.

How many subs is that on the Draco?

At the default 30 s sub length, 147 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 100 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 2 h 01 min to 1 h 13 min.

How long to image the Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab Draco needs about 1 h 13 min (147 subs of 30 s with the built-in dual-narrowband (Hα + OIII) filter) for a solid image of the Western Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 18 min; a showpiece 4 h 54 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 50 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it only just fits, at 94% of the short side.

Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 30 s subs with the built-in dual-narrowband (Hα + OIII) filter.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	12 min24 subs	48 min96 subs	3 h 10 min381 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	12 min25 subs	48 min97 subs	3 h 13 min387 subs
Bortle 3Rural	12 min25 subs	50 min100 subs	3 h 19 min399 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	13 min27 subs	53 min107 subs	3 h 34 min428 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	15 min30 subs	59 min119 subs	3 h 57 min475 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	18 min37 subs	1 h 13 min147 subs	4 h 54 min588 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	25 min51 subs	1 h 40 min201 subs	6 h 42 min804 subs
Bortle 8City	36 min72 subs	2 h 22 min285 subs	9 h 30 min1,140 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	58 min117 subs	3 h 52 min465 subs	15 h1,857 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 35 min of run time. The Draco’s battery (rated about 5 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.)

USB-C PD power bank 20000mAhRated 5 h on its 10,000 mAh battery. DwarfLab has not published the charging input, so check PD support before relying on it mid-session.
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How it frames

The Western Veil Nebula is 70′ × 6′ across. The Draco frames 1.66° × 1.24° at 1.46″ per pixel, so it only just fits, at 94% of the short side. Centre it carefully: there is no room to crop back afterwards.

Longer subs

Auto Mode picks the exposure; Pro Mode allows up to 300 s, held by built-in guiding and field derotation. The 30 s default here is our assumption. Time for a solid image by sub length:

Sub length	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
30 s	50 min100 subs	59 min119 subs	1 h 40 min201 subs
60 s	37 min37 subs	46 min46 subs	1 h 27 min88 subs
120 s	1 h30 subs	1 h30 subs	1 h 21 min41 subs
300 s	2 h 30 min30 subs	2 h 30 min30 subs	2 h 30 min30 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	44 min89 subs	1 h 15 min151 subs	3 h 30 min420 subs
dual-narrowband (Hα + OIII)	50 min100 subs	59 min119 subs	1 h 40 min201 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 Draco

DwarfLab’s big scope: 90 mm of folded f/3.8 optics, the most aperture of any Seestar or DWARF, a narrow 13 nm dual-band filter and 300 s subs with built-in guiding. A small-target scope; big nebulae need its mosaic mode.

Auto Mode picks the exposure; Pro Mode allows up to 300 s, held by built-in guiding and field derotation. The 30 s default here is our assumption. Built-in Hα + OIII dual-narrowband filter, 13 nm per line; the SHO Edition adds an SII option.

Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 30 s and 300 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 Draco? 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 Draco? 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 Draco