How long to image the Flaming Star Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 6 h 03 min (2,177 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Flaming Star Nebula. A quick look takes 1 h 31 min; a showpiece 24 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 h 29 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 31% 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 | 32 min193 subs | 2 h 09 min772 subs | 8 h 34 min3,086 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 34 min204 subs | 2 h 16 min815 subs | 9 h 03 min3,258 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 37 min225 subs | 2 h 29 min897 subs | 9 h 57 min3,585 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 46 min274 subs | 3 h 02 min1,094 subs | 12 h4,376 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 59 min352 subs | 3 h 55 min1,408 subs | 16 h5,631 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 31 min545 subs | 6 h 03 min2,177 subs | 24 h8,708 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 32 min911 subs | 10 h3,643 subs | 40 h14,572 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 h 07 min1,480 subs | 16 h5,920 subs | 66 h23,677 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 h 29 min2,694 subs | 30 h10,774 subs | 120+ h43,095 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 7 h 52 min of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 3 h 56 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 December 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 Flaming Star Nebula is 30′ × 19′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 31% 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 | 2 h 29 min897 subs | 3 h 55 min1,408 subs | 10 h3,643 subs |
| 20 s | 2 h 02 min368 subs | 3 h 28 min624 subs | 9 h 40 min1,741 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 54 min228 subs | 3 h 19 min398 subs | 9 h 31 min1,143 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 2 h 29 min897 subs | 3 h 55 min1,408 subs | 10 h3,643 subs |
| dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on | 3 h 13 min1,160 subs | 3 h 39 min1,317 subs | 5 h 33 min2,001 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 Flaming Star Nebula
Emission and reflection lit by the runaway star AE Aurigae. Dual-band for the red; a broadband stack adds the blue.
IC 405, Caldwell 31 · Emission nebula in Auriga · magnitude 6.0 · 30′ × 19′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. 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 Flaming Star 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
- Flaming Star Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 53 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 58 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 2 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 2 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 40 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 9 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 42 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 2 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 5 h 46 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 11 h from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Flaming Star Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 59 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Flaming Star Nebula · All targets for the Vespera Pro