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

About 45 min of total integration for a solid image, or 3 h for a showpiece. A quick look takes 11 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin Mark II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 270 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 81 from Bortle 3.

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

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 45 min to 20 min.

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

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin Mark II needs about 45 min (270 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Eastern Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 11 min; a showpiece 3 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 13 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 just over the frame at 1.3×.

Eastern 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 min16 subs	10 min63 subs	42 min250 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	3 min18 subs	11 min69 subs	46 min275 subs
Bortle 3Rural	3 min21 subs	13 min81 subs	54 min323 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	5 min28 subs	18 min110 subs	1 h 13 min440 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	7 min40 subs	26 min157 subs	1 h 44 min625 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	11 min68 subs	45 min270 subs	3 h1,079 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	20 min122 subs	1 h 21 min486 subs	5 h 24 min1,943 subs
Bortle 8City	34 min206 subs	2 h 17 min822 subs	9 h 07 min3,285 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	1 h 04 min385 subs	4 h 16 min1,537 subs	17 h6,147 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 58 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 Eastern Veil Nebula is 60′ × 8′ across. The Origin Mark II frames 1.32° × 0.75° at 1.23″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.3×. Point at the part you want; the edges will fall outside the frame.

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	13 min81 subs	26 min157 subs	1 h 21 min486 subs
15 s	13 min53 subs	26 min103 subs	1 h 21 min323 subs
30 s	15 min30 subs	25 min51 subs	1 h 20 min161 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	13 min81 subs	26 min157 subs	1 h 21 min486 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	11 min65 subs	15 min88 subs	31 min189 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 Eastern Veil Nebula

The brighter, more detailed arc of the Veil. Red hydrogen and teal oxygen filaments interleave; dual-band captures both.

NGC 6992, NGC 6995, Caldwell 33 · Supernova remnant in Cygnus · magnitude 7.0 · 60′ × 8′ · 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.

Where to buy the Origin Mark IICelestron store Direct Amazon UK Amazon USThe Celestron store link is a plain link; the others are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Imaged the Eastern 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 Eastern 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 Eastern Veil Nebula · All targets for the Origin Mark II