How long to image the Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF 3 needs about 1 h 37 min (390 subs of 15 s with the built-in dual-band filter) for a solid image of the Eastern Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 24 min; a showpiece 6 h 30 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 01 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 61% 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 | 14 min58 subs | 57 min230 subs | 3 h 50 min920 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 15 min59 subs | 59 min235 subs | 3 h 55 min939 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 15 min62 subs | 1 h 01 min245 subs | 4 h 04 min977 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 17 min67 subs | 1 h 07 min267 subs | 4 h 27 min1,067 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 19 min76 subs | 1 h 16 min303 subs | 5 h 02 min1,209 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 24 min98 subs | 1 h 37 min390 subs | 6 h 30 min1,559 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 35 min140 subs | 2 h 19 min557 subs | 9 h 16 min2,226 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 51 min204 subs | 3 h 24 min816 subs | 14 h3,262 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 25 min342 subs | 5 h 42 min1,368 subs | 23 h5,470 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 07 min of run time. The DWARF 3’s battery (rated about 5 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 20000mAh 18W18 W PD input and it runs while charging; needs a C-to-C cable for PD.
- 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 3 →
How it frames
The Eastern Veil Nebula is 60′ × 8′ across. The DWARF 3 frames 2.93° × 1.65° at 2.75″ per pixel, so it fills 61% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 1 h 01 min245 subs | 1 h 16 min303 subs | 2 h 19 min557 subs |
| 30 s | 53 min106 subs | 1 h 07 min135 subs | 2 h 11 min262 subs |
| 60 s | 48 min49 subs | 1 h 03 min63 subs | 2 h 06 min127 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astro (no light-pollution filter) | 1 h 01 min244 subs | 1 h 48 min434 subs | 5 h 16 min1,265 subs |
| dual-band | 1 h 01 min245 subs | 1 h 16 min303 subs | 2 h 19 min557 subs |
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 3
Small pixels on a 35 mm f/4.3 lens give a sharper image than its aperture suggests, and EQ mode with 60 s subs makes it the read-noise winner in dark skies.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling on the tele camera. Three built-in filters: VIS, Astro (430 to 690 nm) and dual-band Hα 656 nm / OIII 501 nm.
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 60 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 Eastern Veil Nebula from a DWARF 3? 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 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 DwarfLab DWARF II: 7 h 05 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 3