How long to image the M54 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro needs about 31 min (187 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M54. A quick look takes 8 min; a showpiece 2 h 05 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 14 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 14% 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 | 3 min19 subs | 12 min74 subs | 49 min293 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 3 min20 subs | 13 min77 subs | 51 min307 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 3 min21 subs | 14 min84 subs | 55 min333 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 4 min25 subs | 17 min100 subs | 1 h 06 min397 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 5 min32 subs | 21 min125 subs | 1 h 23 min499 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 8 min47 subs | 31 min187 subs | 2 h 05 min748 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 13 min77 subs | 51 min306 subs | 3 h 24 min1,222 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 20 min123 subs | 1 h 22 min490 subs | 5 h 26 min1,958 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 37 min221 subs | 2 h 27 min882 subs | 9 h 48 min3,528 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 40 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 M54 is 12′ across. The Seestar S50 Pro frames 2.45° × 1.38° at 2.30″ per pixel, so it fills 14% 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 | 14 min84 subs | 21 min125 subs | 51 min306 subs |
| 20 s | 12 min37 subs | 19 min58 subs | 49 min148 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 18 min37 subs | 49 min98 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 30 min30 subs | 48 min48 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the M54. 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 M54
A globular that actually belongs to the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy being eaten by the Milky Way. Low from the north.
NGC 6715 · Globular cluster in Sagittarius · magnitude 7.6 · 12′ · best in Jun, Jul, Aug. 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 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 M54 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
- M54 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 28 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 30 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 33 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 42 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 28 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the DwarfLab Draco: 23 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 28 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 27 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 25 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 55 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the Celestron Origin: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M54 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 10 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M54 · All targets for the Seestar S50 Pro