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

About 1 h 28 min of total integration for a solid image, or 5 h 52 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 22 min.

How many subs is that on the Seestar S50 Pro?

At the default 10 s sub length, 528 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 375 from Bortle 3.

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

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 2 h 16 min to 1 h 28 min.

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

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro needs about 1 h 28 min (528 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 22 min; a showpiece 5 h 52 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 02 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is a mix of skyglow and read noise. In this scope's field it fills 72% of the frame’s short side.

Eastern 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	15 min90 subs	1 h360 subs	4 h1,438 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	15 min92 subs	1 h 01 min365 subs	4 h 03 min1,459 subs
Bortle 3Rural	16 min94 subs	1 h 02 min375 subs	4 h 10 min1,498 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	17 min100 subs	1 h 06 min398 subs	4 h 25 min1,592 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	18 min109 subs	1 h 13 min436 subs	4 h 50 min1,742 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	22 min132 subs	1 h 28 min528 subs	5 h 52 min2,110 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	29 min176 subs	1 h 57 min703 subs	7 h 48 min2,810 subs
Bortle 8City	41 min244 subs	2 h 42 min975 subs	11 h3,898 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	1 h 05 min389 subs	4 h 19 min1,555 subs	17 h6,218 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 54 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 Eastern Veil Nebula is 60′ × 8′ across. The Seestar S50 Pro frames 2.45° × 1.38° at 2.30″ per pixel, so it fills 72% 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 02 min375 subs	1 h 13 min436 subs	1 h 57 min703 subs
20 s	45 min136 subs	55 min167 subs	1 h 40 min300 subs
30 s	39 min79 subs	50 min100 subs	1 h 34 min189 subs
60 s	34 min34 subs	44 min44 subs	1 h 28 min89 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)	52 min314 subs	1 h 26 min514 subs	3 h 51 min1,386 subs
dual-band (LP filter)	1 h 02 min375 subs	1 h 13 min436 subs	1 h 57 min703 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 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 Eastern 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 Eastern 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 Eastern Veil Nebula · All targets for the Seestar S50 Pro