How long to image the Hercules Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S30
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S30 needs about 8 min (46 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Hercules Cluster. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 30 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 5 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 28% 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 | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min92 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 16 min98 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 18 min111 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 2 min10 subs | 5 min33 subs | 22 min132 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 min12 subs | 8 min46 subs | 30 min183 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 3 min18 subs | 12 min71 subs | 47 min282 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 5 min28 subs | 18 min109 subs | 1 h 12 min434 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 8 min48 subs | 32 min190 subs | 2 h 07 min760 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 10 min of run time. The Seestar S30’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.)
- USB-C power bank 10000mAh 5V 3A6,000 mAh inside; a 10,000 mAh 5 V 3 A bank roughly doubles a session.
- Seestar S30 dew shieldHeater is built in; a cheap shield reduces dew and stray light.
- 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 S30 →
How it frames
The Hercules Cluster is 20′ across. The Seestar S30 frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it fills 28% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
10, 20 and 30 s in Alt-Az; 60 s only in EQ mode, which needs the TH10 head. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 5 min30 subs | 5 min33 subs | 12 min71 subs |
| 20 s | 10 min30 subs | 10 min30 subs | 11 min34 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 30 min30 subs | 30 min30 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the Hercules Cluster. It is a globular cluster, 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 Hercules Cluster
The great northern globular, a few hundred thousand stars in a ball a third the Moon's width. Quick and always satisfying.
M13, NGC 6205 · Globular cluster in Hercules · magnitude 5.8 · 20′ · best in May, Jun, Jul. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Globular clusters are point sources packed tight, so they come quickly: the core resolves into stars within a handful of minutes on any smart scope. More time deepens the halo and pulls in the faint outer members. Use short subs so the core does not saturate into a white blob, and no filter.
About the ZWO Seestar S30
Wider and lighter than the S50 with the same 2.9 µm pixels, so its per-pixel speed on extended targets is close despite the smaller aperture. Ideal for big nebulae.
10, 20 and 30 s in Alt-Az; 60 s only in EQ mode, which needs the TH10 head. Built-in UV/IR-cut, dual-band (OIII 30 nm / Hα 20 nm) and dark filters.
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 Hercules Cluster from a Seestar S30? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Hercules Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S50: 7 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 11 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 24 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera II: 7 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 16 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 7 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 6 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Unistellar Odyssey: 28 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Hercules Cluster with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Hercules Cluster · All targets for the Seestar S30