How long to image the Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the DwarfLab DWARF mini needs about 1 h 17 min (309 subs of 15 s with the built-in dual-band filter) for a solid image of the Eastern Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 19 min; a showpiece 5 h 09 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 54 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 84% 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 | 13 min52 subs | 51 min206 subs | 3 h 25 min822 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 13 min53 subs | 52 min209 subs | 3 h 28 min834 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 13 min54 subs | 54 min215 subs | 3 h 34 min858 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 14 min58 subs | 57 min230 subs | 3 h 49 min917 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 16 min64 subs | 1 h 03 min253 subs | 4 h 12 min1,009 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 19 min78 subs | 1 h 17 min309 subs | 5 h 09 min1,236 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 26 min105 subs | 1 h 44 min417 subs | 6 h 57 min1,667 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 37 min147 subs | 2 h 26 min585 subs | 9 h 44 min2,338 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 59 min236 subs | 3 h 55 min942 subs | 16 h3,768 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 40 min of run time. The DWARF mini’s battery (rated about 3 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 10000mAh 20W7,000 mAh inside, about four hours; a PD bank extends the night.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
Affiliate links: the retailer pays us a small commission and you pay the same price. These are search links to the named product, not endorsements of a particular listing; check the listing matches your model.
Everything that fits the DWARF mini →
How it frames
The Eastern Veil Nebula is 60′ × 8′ across. The DWARF mini frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it fills 84% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 s | 54 min215 subs | 1 h 03 min253 subs | 1 h 44 min417 subs |
| 30 s | 40 min80 subs | 49 min98 subs | 1 h 30 min181 subs |
| 60 s | 32 min33 subs | 42 min42 subs | 1 h 23 min84 subs |
| 90 s | 45 min30 subs | 45 min30 subs | 1 h 21 min54 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astro (no light-pollution filter) | 46 min186 subs | 1 h 17 min309 subs | 3 h 32 min847 subs |
| dual-band | 54 min215 subs | 1 h 03 min253 subs | 1 h 44 min417 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 mini
DwarfLab’s answer to the Seestar S30: same sensor and focal length, big pixels, dual-band filter built in, and 90 s subs in EQ mode. Sensitivity over megapixels.
Auto mode caps subs at 15 s; 30 s and longer need EQ mode, and 90 s is the ceiling. Built-in Astro (430 to 690 nm), dark-frame and dual-band Hα / OIII filters; no plain VIS filter on the tele camera.
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 90 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 mini? 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 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 mini