How long to image the M77 with the ZWO Seestar S50
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S50 needs about 30 min (182 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M77. A quick look takes 8 min; a showpiece 2 h 01 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 16% 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 | 13 min76 subs | 50 min301 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 3 min20 subs | 13 min79 subs | 52 min314 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 4 min22 subs | 14 min85 subs | 56 min339 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 4 min25 subs | 17 min100 subs | 1 h 06 min398 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 5 min31 subs | 21 min124 subs | 1 h 22 min493 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 8 min46 subs | 30 min182 subs | 2 h 01 min725 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 12 min73 subs | 49 min292 subs | 3 h 14 min1,167 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 19 min116 subs | 1 h 17 min464 subs | 5 h 09 min1,854 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 35 min208 subs | 2 h 18 min830 subs | 9 h 13 min3,319 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 39 min of run time. The Seestar S50’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, and 30% off the battery for a November night.)
- USB-C power bank 20000mAh 5V 3AThe S50 draws 5 V 3 A over USB-C and runs while charging; no PD needed.
- Seestar S50 dew shieldThe built-in heater copes with most nights; a shield helps in heavy dew and blocks stray light.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
- hand warmers long lastingAir-activated packs give hours of heat for the person; winter nights are long and you spend most of them standing still.
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Everything that fits the Seestar S50 →
How it frames
The M77 is 7′ × 6′ across. The Seestar S50 frames 1.28° × 0.72° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 16% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
10, 20 and 30 s in Alt-Az; 60 s only in EQ mode (app 2.5 and later). Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 14 min85 subs | 21 min124 subs | 49 min292 subs |
| 20 s | 13 min38 subs | 19 min58 subs | 47 min142 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 19 min38 subs | 47 min94 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 30 min30 subs | 46 min47 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the M77. 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 11 times slower.
About the M77
A Seyfert galaxy with a blazing core and faint outer arms. The nucleus is easy; the arms are not.
NGC 1068 · Galaxy in Cetus · magnitude 8.9 · 7′ × 6′ · best in Oct, Nov, Dec. 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
The scope that made smart astrophotography mainstream. 50 mm triplet, 2 MP sensor, dual-band filter on a wheel. Alt-Az stacking at 10 s, EQ mode unlocks 60 s. Out of production since 2026 and replaced by the S50 Pro, but there are a great many in use.
10, 20 and 30 s in Alt-Az; 60 s only in EQ mode (app 2.5 and later). Built-in dual-band light-pollution filter, switchable in the app.
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 M77 from a Seestar S50? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M77 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 33 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 32 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 35 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 44 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 30 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the DwarfLab Draco: 25 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 30 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 29 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 26 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Celestron Origin: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 11 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M77 · All targets for the Seestar S50