How long should I image the Western Veil Nebula with the Seestar S50 Pro from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 1 h 44 min of total integration for a solid image, or 6 h 57 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 26 min.

How many subs is that on the Seestar S50 Pro?

At the default 10 s sub length, 625 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 441 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 42 min to 1 h 44 min.

How long to image the Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro needs about 1 h 44 min (625 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 26 min; a showpiece 6 h 57 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 13 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 85% of the frame’s short side.

Western Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 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	18 min106 subs	1 h 10 min423 subs	4 h 42 min1,692 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	18 min108 subs	1 h 12 min430 subs	4 h 46 min1,717 subs
Bortle 3Rural	18 min111 subs	1 h 13 min441 subs	4 h 54 min1,764 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	20 min118 subs	1 h 18 min470 subs	5 h 13 min1,878 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	21 min129 subs	1 h 26 min515 subs	5 h 43 min2,058 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	26 min157 subs	1 h 44 min625 subs	6 h 57 min2,500 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	35 min209 subs	2 h 19 min836 subs	9 h 17 min3,342 subs
Bortle 8City	48 min291 subs	3 h 14 min1,163 subs	13 h4,650 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	1 h 17 min465 subs	5 h 10 min1,860 subs	21 h7,439 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 15 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.
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Seestar S50 Pro dew shieldDew heater is built in; a shield adds margin on damp nights. Check the listing says S50 Pro.
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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 S50 Pro frames 2.45° × 1.38° at 2.30″ per pixel, so it fills 85% 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	1 h 13 min441 subs	1 h 26 min515 subs	2 h 19 min836 subs
20 s	53 min159 subs	1 h 05 min196 subs	1 h 59 min356 subs
30 s	46 min92 subs	58 min117 subs	1 h 52 min224 subs
60 s	39 min40 subs	51 min52 subs	1 h 45 min105 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 02 min371 subs	1 h 42 min611 subs	4 h 37 min1,660 subs
dual-band (LP filter)	1 h 13 min441 subs	1 h 26 min515 subs	2 h 19 min836 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 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.

Where to buy the Seestar S50 ProZWO 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 S50 Pro? 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 S50 Pro? 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 S50 Pro