How long to image the Soul Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 12 h (4,462 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Soul Nebula. A quick look takes 3 h 06 min; a showpiece 50 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 4 h 58 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is skyglow, so a darker site or a filter helps more than longer subs. In this scope's field it fills 62% 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 | 1 h 04 min382 subs | 4 h 14 min1,525 subs | 17 h6,099 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 1 h 07 min404 subs | 4 h 29 min1,615 subs | 18 h6,460 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 1 h 14 min447 subs | 4 h 58 min1,786 subs | 20 h7,143 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 h 32 min550 subs | 6 h 06 min2,199 subs | 24 h8,796 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 59 min714 subs | 7 h 56 min2,855 subs | 32 h11,417 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 3 h 06 min1,116 subs | 12 h4,462 subs | 50 h17,847 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 5 h 14 min1,882 subs | 21 h7,525 subs | 84 h30,099 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 8 h 32 min3,071 subs | 34 h12,281 subs | 140+ h49,121 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 16 h5,606 subs | 62 h22,423 subs | 250+ h89,691 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 16 h of run time. That is more than one night: over 3 nights, about 5 h 22 min each. The Vespera Pro’s battery (rated about 11 h) should cover each night; a power bank still keeps the phone running the app alive. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time, and 30% off the battery for a November night.)
- USB-C PD power bank 20000mAh 30WExtends the 11 h battery; 30 W PD per Vaonis.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
- hand warmers long lastingAir-activated packs give hours of heat for the person; winter nights are long and you spend most of them standing still.
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Everything that fits the Vespera Pro →
How it frames
The Soul Nebula is 60′ × 30′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 62% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
10 s subs by default; Expert Mode manual targets allow 1 to 30 s. Alt-azimuth only, no EQ mode. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 4 h 58 min1,786 subs | 7 h 56 min2,855 subs | 21 h7,525 subs |
| 20 s | 4 h 01 min725 subs | 7 h1,259 subs | 20 h3,594 subs |
| 30 s | 3 h 43 min446 subs | 6 h 41 min802 subs | 20 h2,359 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 4 h 58 min1,786 subs | 7 h 56 min2,855 subs | 21 h7,525 subs |
| dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on | 6 h 23 min2,299 subs | 7 h 18 min2,626 subs | 11 h4,056 subs |
The Vespera Pro has no built-in dual-band filter. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.
About the Soul Nebula
The Heart's companion, a knobbly emission cloud full of pillars. Faint overall; long dual-band integrations reward you.
IC 1848, Sh2-199 · Emission nebula in Cassiopeia · magnitude 6.5 · 60′ × 30′ · best in Oct, Nov, Dec. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Emission nebulae glow in a few narrow lines, mostly hydrogen-alpha (deep red) and doubly ionised oxygen (teal). A dual-band filter passes those lines and blocks most skyglow, which is why it cuts the time needed from a suburban sky so dramatically. Use it. From a genuinely dark site the gain is smaller because there is less skyglow to block, and read noise becomes the limit, which is where longer subs (EQ mode, or Expert Mode on a Vespera) earn their keep.
Stars lose colour through a dual-band filter; a short broadband stack blended in fixes that if you care.
About the Vaonis Vespera Pro
The square-sensor Vespera with 2 µm pixels. Higher resolution than the II, and correspondingly slower per pixel: expect around double the time for the same per-pixel SNR. Run-out in 2026 and replaced by the Vespera Pro 2.
10 s subs by default; Expert Mode manual targets allow 1 to 30 s. Alt-azimuth only, no EQ mode. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar.
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 30 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 Soul Nebula from a Vespera Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Soul Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 3 h 21 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 3 h 46 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 3 h 57 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 4 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 4 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 3 h 18 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 2 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 19 h from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 5 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 12 h from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 5 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 24 h from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- Soul Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 2 h from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Soul Nebula · All targets for the Vespera Pro