How long to image the Pinwheel Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro needs about 5 h 03 min (1,817 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Pinwheel Galaxy. A quick look takes 1 h 16 min; a showpiece 20 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 52 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 fills 35% 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 | 23 min141 subs | 1 h 33 min561 subs | 6 h 13 min2,241 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 25 min150 subs | 1 h 40 min599 subs | 6 h 39 min2,396 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 28 min168 subs | 1 h 52 min672 subs | 7 h 28 min2,688 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 35 min213 subs | 2 h 21 min849 subs | 9 h 26 min3,395 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 47 min283 subs | 3 h 08 min1,129 subs | 13 h4,516 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 16 min455 subs | 5 h 03 min1,817 subs | 20 h7,268 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 10 min782 subs | 8 h 41 min3,128 subs | 35 h12,510 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 3 h 35 min1,291 subs | 14 h5,163 subs | 57 h20,650 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 6 h 36 min2,376 subs | 26 h9,503 subs | 110+ h38,009 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 6 h 34 min of run time. The Seestar S50 Pro’s battery (rated about 9 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.)
- USB-C PD power bank 20000mAh 30WAccepts 12 V 3 A PD, so a 30 W bank tops up the 10,000 mAh cell while imaging.
- Seestar S50 Pro dew shieldDew heater is built in; a shield adds margin on damp nights. Check the listing says S50 Pro.
- 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 Seestar S50 Pro →
How it frames
The Pinwheel Galaxy is 29′ × 27′ across. The Seestar S50 Pro frames 2.45° × 1.38° at 2.30″ per pixel, so it fills 35% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
10, 20 and 30 s in Alt-Az; 60 s only in EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 1 h 52 min672 subs | 3 h 08 min1,129 subs | 8 h 41 min3,128 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 33 min278 subs | 2 h 49 min507 subs | 8 h 22 min1,506 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 26 min173 subs | 2 h 42 min325 subs | 8 h 15 min991 subs |
| 60 s | 1 h 20 min80 subs | 2 h 36 min156 subs | 8 h 09 min490 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the Pinwheel Galaxy. It is a galaxy, and it shines right across the spectrum. A dual-band filter keeps two emission lines and throws the rest away, so most of the light you came for is being stopped along with the sky. From a Bortle 6 sky it would be roughly 12 times slower.
About the Pinwheel Galaxy
Big, face-on and faint. Its total magnitude is flattering; spread over half a degree the arms are dim and demand hours, especially from suburban skies.
M101, NGC 5457 · Galaxy in Ursa Major · magnitude 7.9 · 29′ × 27′ · best in Apr, May, Jun. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Galaxies are broadband targets: their light is mostly starlight spread across the spectrum, so a dual-band filter throws most of it away and makes things slower, not faster. Shoot without a filter (or with a plain UV/IR cut) and rely on total time and a dark sky. The core of a galaxy is usually many times brighter than its outer disc, so a short stack shows the nucleus long before the arms; the figures here are for the arms and disc, not the core.
Field rotation in Alt-Az mode crops the edges of the stack over a long session, so on a big galaxy re-centre now and then or use EQ mode where your scope supports it.
About the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro
The S50 optics at 260 mm on an 8 MP 1/1.2-inch sensor: a wider, taller field, four times the pixels, and 60 s subs in EQ mode. Per pixel it is a whisker slower than the S50 because of the longer focal length; the long subs make it the better dark-site scope.
10, 20 and 30 s in Alt-Az; 60 s only in EQ mode, and 60 s is the ceiling. Built-in UV/IR-cut, dual-band (OIII 30 nm / Hα 20 nm) and dark filters on the telephoto camera.
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 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 Pinwheel Galaxy from a Seestar S50 Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 4 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 4 h 51 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 5 h 21 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 6 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 4 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 3 h 47 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 16 h from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 4 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 10 h from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 4 h 24 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 9 h 52 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 4 h 14 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 20 h from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Pinwheel Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 40 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Pinwheel Galaxy · All targets for the Seestar S50 Pro