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

About 33 min of total integration for a solid image, or 2 h 11 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 8 min.

How many subs is that on the Origin?

At the default 10 s sub length, 197 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 66 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 33 min to 17 min.

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

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Celestron Origin needs about 33 min (197 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Eastern Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 8 min; a showpiece 2 h 11 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 11 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 1.2×.

Eastern Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	2 min14 subs	9 min53 subs	35 min211 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	2 min15 subs	10 min58 subs	38 min229 subs
Bortle 3Rural	3 min17 subs	11 min66 subs	44 min262 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	4 min22 subs	14 min86 subs	57 min343 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	5 min30 subs	20 min118 subs	1 h 19 min472 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	8 min50 subs	33 min197 subs	2 h 11 min787 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	14 min87 subs	58 min347 subs	3 h 51 min1,387 subs
Bortle 8City	24 min145 subs	1 h 37 min580 subs	6 h 26 min2,319 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	45 min270 subs	2 h 59 min1,077 subs	12 h4,306 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 43 min of run time. The Origin’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 frames 1.27° × 0.85° at 1.48″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.2×. 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. Time for a solid image by sub length:

Sub length	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
10 s	11 min66 subs	20 min118 subs	58 min347 subs
15 s	10 min41 subs	19 min76 subs	57 min229 subs
30 s	15 min30 subs	18 min37 subs	56 min113 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	11 min66 subs	20 min118 subs	58 min347 subs
dual-band (Nebula Filter), drawer	11 min64 subs	13 min80 subs	25 min150 subs

The Origin 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

The first-generation Origin: a 6-inch f/2.2 RASA in a smart package and the fastest system here by a wide margin. Superseded by the Mark II in late 2025 and no longer sold new; Celestron offers a camera upgrade to the Mark II sensor.

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. Filter drawer takes 1.25-inch or 2-inch filters, including dual-band; Celestron sells an optional Nebula Filter.

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 Eastern Veil Nebula with your Origin? 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? 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