How long to image the M88 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro needs about 2 h (720 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M88. A quick look takes 30 min; a showpiece 8 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 49 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 | 11 min64 subs | 42 min255 subs | 2 h 50 min1,019 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 11 min68 subs | 45 min270 subs | 2 h 59 min1,077 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 12 min75 subs | 49 min297 subs | 3 h 17 min1,185 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 15 min91 subs | 1 h362 subs | 4 h 01 min1,446 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 19 min117 subs | 1 h 18 min466 subs | 5 h 10 min1,861 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 30 min180 subs | 2 h720 subs | 8 h2,879 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 50 min302 subs | 3 h 21 min1,205 subs | 13 h4,818 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 22 min490 subs | 5 h 26 min1,958 subs | 22 h7,829 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 2 h 28 min891 subs | 9 h 54 min3,563 subs | 40 h14,250 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 36 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 M88 is 7′ × 4′ across. The Seestar S50 Pro frames 2.45° × 1.38° at 2.30″ 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, and 60 s is the ceiling. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 49 min297 subs | 1 h 18 min466 subs | 3 h 21 min1,205 subs |
| 20 s | 42 min127 subs | 1 h 10 min212 subs | 3 h 14 min581 subs |
| 30 s | 40 min80 subs | 1 h 08 min137 subs | 3 h 11 min383 subs |
| 60 s | 37 min38 subs | 1 h 06 min66 subs | 3 h 09 min189 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the M88. 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 M88
A tilted spiral in the Virgo cluster with tightly wound arms.
NGC 4501 · Galaxy in Coma Berenices · magnitude 9.6 · 7′ × 4′ · 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 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 M88 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
- M88 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 50 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 55 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 2 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 2 h 40 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 49 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 6 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 50 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 4 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 45 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 3 h 54 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 7 h 34 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the Celestron Origin: 29 min from Bortle 6
- M88 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 40 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M88 · All targets for the Seestar S50 Pro