How long to image the Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro needs about 1 h 52 min (674 subs of 10 s with the built-in dual-band (LP filter) filter) for a solid image of the Western Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 28 min; a showpiece 7 h 29 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 20 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 52% 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 | 19 min116 subs | 1 h 17 min462 subs | 5 h 07 min1,845 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 19 min117 subs | 1 h 18 min468 subs | 5 h 12 min1,871 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 20 min121 subs | 1 h 20 min481 subs | 5 h 20 min1,921 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 21 min128 subs | 1 h 25 min510 subs | 5 h 40 min2,040 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 23 min140 subs | 1 h 33 min558 subs | 6 h 12 min2,230 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 28 min169 subs | 1 h 52 min674 subs | 7 h 29 min2,695 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 37 min224 subs | 2 h 29 min896 subs | 9 h 57 min3,581 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 52 min310 subs | 3 h 26 min1,239 subs | 14 h4,956 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 22 min494 subs | 5 h 29 min1,973 subs | 22 h7,890 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 26 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 Western Veil Nebula is 70′ × 6′ across. The Seestar S30 Pro frames 3.99° × 2.24° at 3.74″ per pixel, so it fills 52% 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 | 1 h 20 min481 subs | 1 h 33 min558 subs | 2 h 29 min896 subs |
| 20 s | 57 min172 subs | 1 h 10 min211 subs | 2 h 06 min379 subs |
| 30 s | 49 min99 subs | 1 h 02 min125 subs | 1 h 59 min238 subs |
| 60 s | 42 min42 subs | 55 min55 subs | 1 h 51 min112 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UV/IR-cut (no light-pollution filter) | 1 h 06 min399 subs | 1 h 48 min651 subs | 4 h 52 min1,754 subs |
| dual-band (LP filter) | 1 h 20 min481 subs | 1 h 33 min558 subs | 2 h 29 min896 subs |
About the Western Veil Nebula
A thin, bright filament of supernova shock running through the star 52 Cygni. A dual-band filter transforms it; without one it drowns in suburban skyglow.
NGC 6960, Witch’s Broom, Caldwell 34 · Supernova remnant in Cygnus · magnitude 7.0 · 70′ × 6′ · best in Jul, Aug, Sep. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Supernova remnants are emission-line objects, strong in both hydrogen-alpha and OIII, and their filaments are thin, so pixel scale matters as much as aperture. A dual-band filter is essential from any lit sky and still helps under a dark one. These are long-integration targets; plan on several sessions and stack across nights.
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 Western Veil Nebula 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
- Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 33 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 44 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 55 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 8 h 29 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 5 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 2 h 21 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 5 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 15 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 10 h from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 39 min from Bortle 6
- Western Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 54 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Western Veil Nebula · All targets for the Seestar S30 Pro