How long to image the M68 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro needs about 37 min (220 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M68. A quick look takes 9 min; a showpiece 2 h 27 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 16 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 8% 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 | 4 min22 subs | 14 min87 subs | 58 min348 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 4 min23 subs | 15 min91 subs | 1 h 01 min364 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 4 min25 subs | 16 min99 subs | 1 h 06 min395 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 5 min30 subs | 20 min118 subs | 1 h 18 min470 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 6 min37 subs | 25 min148 subs | 1 h 38 min589 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 9 min55 subs | 37 min220 subs | 2 h 27 min880 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 15 min90 subs | 1 h359 subs | 3 h 59 min1,436 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 24 min144 subs | 1 h 36 min575 subs | 6 h 23 min2,298 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 43 min259 subs | 2 h 52 min1,035 subs | 11 h4,137 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 48 min of run time. The Seestar S30 Pro’s battery (rated about 5 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 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 M68 is 11′ across. The Seestar S30 Pro frames 3.99° × 2.24° at 3.74″ per pixel, so it fills 8% 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 | 16 min99 subs | 25 min148 subs | 1 h359 subs |
| 20 s | 14 min43 subs | 22 min68 subs | 58 min173 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 22 min44 subs | 57 min114 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 30 min30 subs | 56 min57 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the M68. 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 M68
A loose globular in Hydra, low from the UK but easy from lower latitudes.
NGC 4590 · Globular cluster in Hydra · magnitude 7.8 · 11′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. 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 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 M68 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
- M68 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 32 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 35 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 33 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 46 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 32 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the DwarfLab Draco: 26 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 47 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 32 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 11 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 30 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 28 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 2 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the Celestron Origin: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M68 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 12 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M68 · All targets for the Seestar S30 Pro