How long to image the Eastern Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro needs about 1 h 35 min (569 subs of 10 s with the built-in dual-band (LP filter) filter) for a solid image of the Eastern Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 24 min; a showpiece 6 h 19 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 08 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 45% 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 | 16 min98 subs | 1 h 05 min392 subs | 4 h 21 min1,567 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 17 min100 subs | 1 h 06 min397 subs | 4 h 25 min1,588 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 17 min102 subs | 1 h 08 min408 subs | 4 h 32 min1,630 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 18 min109 subs | 1 h 12 min433 subs | 4 h 48 min1,729 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 20 min118 subs | 1 h 19 min472 subs | 5 h 14 min1,887 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 24 min143 subs | 1 h 35 min569 subs | 6 h 19 min2,273 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 31 min189 subs | 2 h 05 min753 subs | 8 h 22 min3,010 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 43 min260 subs | 2 h 53 min1,039 subs | 12 h4,154 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 09 min413 subs | 4 h 35 min1,649 subs | 18 h6,595 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 03 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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How it frames
The Eastern Veil Nebula is 60′ × 8′ across. The Seestar S30 Pro frames 3.99° × 2.24° at 3.74″ per pixel, so it fills 45% 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 08 min408 subs | 1 h 19 min472 subs | 2 h 05 min753 subs |
| 20 s | 49 min147 subs | 1 h179 subs | 1 h 46 min320 subs |
| 30 s | 42 min85 subs | 53 min107 subs | 1 h 40 min201 subs |
| 60 s | 36 min37 subs | 47 min47 subs | 1 h 34 min94 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UV/IR-cut (no light-pollution filter) | 56 min337 subs | 1 h 31 min547 subs | 4 h 04 min1,465 subs |
| dual-band (LP filter) | 1 h 08 min408 subs | 1 h 19 min472 subs | 2 h 05 min753 subs |
About the Eastern Veil Nebula
The brighter, more detailed arc of the Veil. Red hydrogen and teal oxygen filaments interleave; dual-band captures both.
NGC 6992, NGC 6995, Caldwell 33 · Supernova remnant in Cygnus · magnitude 7.0 · 60′ × 8′ · 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 Eastern 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
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 18 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 17 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 7 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 4 h 38 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 58 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 4 h 25 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h 53 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 8 h 43 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 33 min from Bortle 6
- Eastern Veil Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 45 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Eastern Veil Nebula · All targets for the Seestar S30 Pro