How long to image the Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF II needs about 7 h 05 min (1,701 subs of 15 s) for a solid image of the Eastern Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 1 h 46 min; a showpiece 28 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 3 h 31 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 56% 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 | 48 min191 subs | 3 h 10 min762 subs | 13 h3,048 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 49 min198 subs | 3 h 18 min791 subs | 13 h3,163 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 53 min212 subs | 3 h 31 min846 subs | 14 h3,381 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 h 01 min245 subs | 4 h 04 min978 subs | 16 h3,910 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 14 min297 subs | 4 h 57 min1,187 subs | 20 h4,748 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 46 min426 subs | 7 h 05 min1,701 subs | 28 h6,804 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 48 min671 subs | 11 h2,681 subs | 45 h10,722 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 h 23 min1,051 subs | 18 h4,202 subs | 70 h16,806 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 h 45 min1,862 subs | 31 h7,445 subs | 120+ h29,780 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 9 h 13 min of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 4 h 36 min each. The DWARF II’s battery is rated at about 3 h, so each night needs an external power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time.)
- USB-C PD power bank 10000mAh 18W18 W PD input; runs while charging.
- 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 II →
How it frames
The Eastern Veil Nebula is 60′ × 8′ across. The DWARF II frames 3.19° × 1.79° at 2.99″ per pixel, so it fills 56% of the frame’s short side.
Filters
The Eastern Veil Nebula is an emission target, where a dual-band filter would normally cut the time several-fold from a lit sky, but the DWARF II has no dual-band option: Two built-in filters, VIS and Astro (IR-pass); no dual-band. The optional UHC filter is no longer sold. The figures above are for the Astro position, and a darker sky is the lever that remains.
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 DwarfLab DWARF II
The original pocket scope. 24 mm aperture and tiny 1.45 µm pixels mean it is slow per pixel, so bin or downsample and be patient.
15 s is the hard maximum in any mode; DwarfLab recommends EQ mode at 15 s. Two built-in filters, VIS and Astro (IR-pass); no dual-band. The optional UHC filter is no longer sold.
The DWARF II uses fixed 15 s subs, so the only levers you have are the sky you shoot from, the filter, and total time.
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 Eastern Veil Nebula from a DWARF II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 18 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 17 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 4 h 38 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 58 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 4 h 25 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h 53 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 8 h 43 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 33 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 45 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Eastern Veil Nebula · All targets for the DWARF II