How long to image the Tadpoles Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 8 h 39 min (3,114 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Tadpoles Nebula. A quick look takes 2 h 10 min; a showpiece 35 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 3 h 30 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 41% 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 | 45 min271 subs | 3 h1,083 subs | 12 h4,329 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 48 min287 subs | 3 h 11 min1,145 subs | 13 h4,578 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 53 min316 subs | 3 h 30 min1,263 subs | 14 h5,051 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 h 05 min388 subs | 4 h 18 min1,549 subs | 17 h6,195 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 23 min501 subs | 5 h 34 min2,002 subs | 22 h8,008 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 h 10 min779 subs | 8 h 39 min3,114 subs | 35 h12,456 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 3 h 38 min1,309 subs | 15 h5,233 subs | 58 h20,932 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 5 h 55 min2,131 subs | 24 h8,524 subs | 95 h34,093 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 11 h3,885 subs | 43 h15,540 subs | 170+ h62,160 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 11 h of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 5 h 37 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 Tadpoles Nebula is 40′ × 30′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 41% 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 | 3 h 30 min1,263 subs | 5 h 34 min2,002 subs | 15 h5,233 subs |
| 20 s | 2 h 52 min515 subs | 4 h 55 min885 subs | 14 h2,500 subs |
| 30 s | 2 h 39 min318 subs | 4 h 42 min564 subs | 14 h1,641 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 3 h 30 min1,263 subs | 5 h 34 min2,002 subs | 15 h5,233 subs |
| dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on | 4 h 32 min1,630 subs | 5 h 09 min1,856 subs | 7 h 54 min2,845 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 Tadpoles Nebula
A hydrogen cloud around the cluster NGC 1893, with two tadpole-shaped pillars. Sits in a frame with the Flaming Star on a wide scope.
IC 410 · Emission nebula in Auriga · magnitude 7.5 · 40′ × 30′ · 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 Tadpoles 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
- Tadpoles Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 2 h 22 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 2 h 40 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 2 h 47 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 2 h 53 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 2 h 55 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 2 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 52 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 13 h from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 3 h 51 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 3 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 8 h 15 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 3 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 16 h from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- Tadpoles Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 24 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Tadpoles Nebula · All targets for the Vespera Pro