How long to image the NGC 6914 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro needs about 6 h 38 min (2,390 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the NGC 6914. A quick look takes 1 h 40 min; a showpiece 27 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 h 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 7% 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 | 32 min191 subs | 2 h 07 min763 subs | 8 h 29 min3,052 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 34 min204 subs | 2 h 15 min813 subs | 9 h 02 min3,252 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 38 min227 subs | 2 h 31 min908 subs | 10 h3,630 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 47 min285 subs | 3 h 09 min1,137 subs | 13 h4,546 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 02 min375 subs | 4 h 10 min1,500 subs | 17 h5,998 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 40 min598 subs | 6 h 38 min2,390 subs | 27 h9,560 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 50 min1,022 subs | 11 h4,087 subs | 45 h16,348 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 h 40 min1,681 subs | 19 h6,722 subs | 75 h26,886 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 8 h 34 min3,086 subs | 34 h12,341 subs | 140+ h49,362 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 8 h 38 min of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 4 h 19 min each. The Seestar S50 Pro’s battery (rated about 9 h) should cover each night; 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 NGC 6914 is 6′ across. The Seestar S50 Pro frames 2.45° × 1.38° at 2.30″ per pixel, so it fills 7% 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 | 2 h 31 min908 subs | 4 h 10 min1,500 subs | 11 h4,087 subs |
| 20 s | 2 h 06 min379 subs | 3 h 45 min675 subs | 11 h1,969 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 58 min236 subs | 3 h 37 min434 subs | 11 h1,296 subs |
| 60 s | 1 h 50 min110 subs | 3 h 28 min209 subs | 11 h640 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the NGC 6914. It is a reflection nebula, 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 NGC 6914
Blue reflection patches floating on a sea of red hydrogen in Cygnus. Broadband for the blue; dual-band would remove the point.
vdB 131/132 · Reflection nebula in Cygnus · magnitude 9.0 · 6′ · best in Jul, Aug, Sep. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Reflection nebulae are starlight scattered by dust, so they are broadband and blue. A dual-band filter removes almost all of it; do not use one. These are among the faintest structures a smart scope can attempt and the figures run long. A dark sky matters more here than for any other type, and the Moon must be down.
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 NGC 6914 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
- NGC 6914 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 6 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 6 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 7 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 6 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the DwarfLab Draco: 4 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 21 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 6 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 14 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 13 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 5 h 33 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 26 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 6914 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 2 h 12 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the NGC 6914 · All targets for the Seestar S50 Pro