How long to image the Needle Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro needs about 1 h 16 min (459 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Needle Galaxy. A quick look takes 19 min; a showpiece 5 h 06 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 31 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 12% 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 | 7 min41 subs | 27 min161 subs | 1 h 47 min641 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 7 min43 subs | 28 min170 subs | 1 h 53 min678 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 8 min47 subs | 31 min187 subs | 2 h 04 min747 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 10 min58 subs | 38 min229 subs | 2 h 32 min915 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 12 min74 subs | 49 min296 subs | 3 h 17 min1,181 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 19 min115 subs | 1 h 16 min459 subs | 5 h 06 min1,834 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 32 min193 subs | 2 h 08 min770 subs | 8 h 33 min3,077 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 52 min313 subs | 3 h 29 min1,252 subs | 14 h5,008 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 35 min571 subs | 6 h 20 min2,282 subs | 25 h9,125 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 39 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 Needle Galaxy is 16′ × 2′ across. The Seestar S30 Pro frames 3.99° × 2.24° at 3.74″ per pixel, so it fills 12% 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 | 31 min187 subs | 49 min296 subs | 2 h 08 min770 subs |
| 20 s | 26 min79 subs | 44 min134 subs | 2 h 03 min371 subs |
| 30 s | 25 min50 subs | 43 min86 subs | 2 h 02 min244 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 41 min42 subs | 2 h121 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the Needle Galaxy. 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 Needle Galaxy
The finest edge-on spiral in the northern sky, a thin needle with a central bulge and dust lane.
NGC 4565, Caldwell 38 · Galaxy in Coma Berenices · magnitude 9.6 · 16′ × 2′ · 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 Needle Galaxy 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
- Needle Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 12 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 09 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 54 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 45 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 21 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 17 min from Bortle 6
- Needle Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 24 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Needle Galaxy · All targets for the Seestar S30 Pro