How long to image the M87 with the ZWO Seestar S30
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S30 needs about 1 h 06 min (394 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M87. A quick look takes 16 min; a showpiece 4 h 22 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 29 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 11% 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 | 6 min39 subs | 26 min156 subs | 1 h 43 min621 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 7 min41 subs | 27 min163 subs | 1 h 48 min651 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 7 min45 subs | 29 min177 subs | 1 h 58 min706 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 9 min53 subs | 35 min210 subs | 2 h 20 min840 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 11 min66 subs | 44 min264 subs | 2 h 55 min1,053 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 16 min99 subs | 1 h 06 min394 subs | 4 h 22 min1,575 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 27 min161 subs | 1 h 47 min643 subs | 7 h 08 min2,570 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 43 min258 subs | 2 h 51 min1,029 subs | 11 h4,114 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 17 min463 subs | 5 h 09 min1,852 subs | 21 h7,407 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 25 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 M87 is 8′ × 7′ across. The Seestar S30 frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it fills 11% 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 | 29 min177 subs | 44 min264 subs | 1 h 47 min643 subs |
| 20 s | 25 min74 subs | 39 min117 subs | 1 h 42 min307 subs |
| 30 s | 23 min46 subs | 37 min75 subs | 1 h 41 min202 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 36 min36 subs | 1 h 39 min99 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the M87. 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 13 times slower.
About the M87
The supergiant elliptical at the heart of the Virgo cluster, home of the first-photographed black hole. Bright, round, structureless.
NGC 4486, Virgo A · Galaxy in Virgo · magnitude 8.6 · 8′ × 7′ · 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
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 M87 from a Seestar S30? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M87 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the DwarfLab Draco: 51 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h from Bortle 6
- M87 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 56 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the Celestron Origin: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M87 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 23 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M87 · All targets for the Seestar S30