How long should I image the Western Veil Nebula with the Seestar S30 from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 1 h 48 min of total integration for a solid image, or 7 h 14 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 27 min.

How many subs is that on the Seestar S30?

At the default 10 s sub length, 651 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 481 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Western Veil Nebula?

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 2 h 36 min to 1 h 48 min.

How long to image the Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S30 needs about 1 h 48 min (651 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 27 min; a showpiece 7 h 14 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 only just fits, at 98% of the short side.

Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 10 s subs with the built-in dual-band (LP filter) filter.
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 min464 subs	5 h 09 min1,855 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	20 min118 subs	1 h 18 min470 subs	5 h 13 min1,878 subs
Bortle 3Rural	20 min121 subs	1 h 20 min481 subs	5 h 20 min1,921 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	21 min127 subs	1 h 24 min507 subs	5 h 38 min2,026 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	23 min138 subs	1 h 31 min549 subs	6 h 05 min2,193 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	27 min163 subs	1 h 48 min651 subs	7 h 14 min2,602 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	35 min212 subs	2 h 21 min845 subs	9 h 23 min3,380 subs
Bortle 8City	48 min287 subs	3 h 11 min1,148 subs	13 h4,589 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	1 h 15 min448 subs	4 h 59 min1,792 subs	20 h7,168 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 21 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.
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Seestar S30 dew shieldHeater is built in; a cheap shield reduces dew and stray light.
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red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
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How it frames

The Western Veil Nebula is 70′ × 6′ across. The Seestar S30 frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it only just fits, at 98% of the short side. Centre it carefully: there is no room to crop back afterwards.

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 31 min549 subs	2 h 21 min845 subs
20 s	55 min164 subs	1 h 06 min198 subs	1 h 55 min347 subs
30 s	46 min93 subs	57 min115 subs	1 h 47 min214 subs
60 s	38 min38 subs	49 min49 subs	1 h 38 min99 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
UV/IR-cut (no light-pollution filter)	1 h 03 min379 subs	1 h 40 min601 subs	4 h 22 min1,570 subs
dual-band (LP filter)	1 h 20 min481 subs	1 h 31 min549 subs	2 h 21 min845 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

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.

Where to buy the Seestar S30ZWO store Direct Amazon UK Amazon USThe ZWO store link is a plain link; the others are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Imaged the Western Veil Nebula with your Seestar S30? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Western Veil Nebula from a Seestar S30? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.

Same target, other telescopes

All telescopes for the Western Veil Nebula · All targets for the Seestar S30