How long to image the M61 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro needs about 3 h 37 min (1,304 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M61. A quick look takes 54 min; a showpiece 14 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 27 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 4% 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 | 19 min112 subs | 1 h 14 min446 subs | 4 h 57 min1,784 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 20 min119 subs | 1 h 19 min473 subs | 5 h 15 min1,889 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 22 min131 subs | 1 h 27 min522 subs | 5 h 48 min2,088 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 27 min161 subs | 1 h 47 min643 subs | 7 h 08 min2,571 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 35 min209 subs | 2 h 19 min834 subs | 9 h 16 min3,336 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 54 min326 subs | 3 h 37 min1,304 subs | 14 h5,213 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 1 h 32 min550 subs | 6 h 06 min2,198 subs | 24 h8,790 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 2 h 29 min897 subs | 9 h 58 min3,586 subs | 40 h14,344 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 4 h 33 min1,637 subs | 18 h6,548 subs | 73 h26,189 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 4 h 42 min of run time. The Seestar S30 Pro’s battery is rated at about 5 h, which is cutting it fine; take a power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time.)
- USB-C power bank 10000mAh 5V 3A5 V 3 A input and it runs while charging.
- Seestar S30 Pro dew shieldActive anti-dew is built in; a shield adds margin. The S30 Pro front differs from the S30, so check the listing.
- 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 Pro →
How it frames
The M61 is 6′ × 5.5′ across. The Seestar S30 Pro frames 3.99° × 2.24° at 3.74″ per pixel, so it fills 4% 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 | 1 h 27 min522 subs | 2 h 19 min834 subs | 6 h 06 min2,198 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 13 min220 subs | 2 h 05 min376 subs | 5 h 52 min1,058 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 09 min138 subs | 2 h 01 min242 subs | 5 h 48 min696 subs |
| 60 s | 1 h 04 min64 subs | 1 h 56 min116 subs | 5 h 43 min344 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the M61. 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 M61
A face-on barred spiral at the southern end of the Virgo cluster, with well-defined arms.
NGC 4303 · Galaxy in Virgo · magnitude 9.7 · 6′ × 5.5′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. 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 S30 Pro
The S30 optics upgraded to a quadruplet in front of an 8 MP IMX585. Same speed per pixel as the S30, four times the pixels, so you can crop hard.
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 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 M61 from a Seestar S30 Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M61 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 3 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 3 h 25 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 3 h 17 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 4 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 3 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the DwarfLab Draco: 2 h 34 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 11 h from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 3 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 6 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 2 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 6 h 40 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 50 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 13 h from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Celestron Origin: 50 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 08 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M61 · All targets for the Seestar S30 Pro