How long to image the Jellyfish Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 6 h 37 min (2,380 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Jellyfish Nebula. A quick look takes 1 h 39 min; a showpiece 26 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 h 22 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 58% 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 | 29 min176 subs | 1 h 57 min701 subs | 7 h 47 min2,801 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 31 min188 subs | 2 h 05 min752 subs | 8 h 21 min3,007 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 35 min213 subs | 2 h 22 min850 subs | 9 h 26 min3,397 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 45 min272 subs | 3 h 01 min1,086 subs | 12 h4,343 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 01 min366 subs | 4 h 03 min1,461 subs | 16 h5,841 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 39 min595 subs | 6 h 37 min2,380 subs | 26 h9,518 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 52 min1,033 subs | 11 h4,131 subs | 46 h16,524 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 h 45 min1,713 subs | 19 h6,851 subs | 76 h27,402 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 8 h 47 min3,163 subs | 35 h12,650 subs | 140+ h50,600 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 8 h 36 min of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 4 h 18 min each. The Vespera II’s battery is rated at about 4 h, less near freezing, so each night needs an external power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time, and 30% off the battery for a January night.)
- USB-C PD power bank 20000mAh 30WOnly four hours inside; Vaonis specifies a 30 W PD source. C-to-C cable not included.
- Vaonis Vespera hygrometer sensorTriggers the built-in demister automatically; the correct dew accessory for the II.
- 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 II →
How it frames
The Jellyfish Nebula is 50′ × 40′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 58% 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 22 min850 subs | 4 h 03 min1,461 subs | 11 h4,131 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 58 min354 subs | 3 h 40 min659 subs | 11 h1,994 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 50 min220 subs | 3 h 32 min424 subs | 11 h1,314 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 2 h 22 min850 subs | 4 h 03 min1,461 subs | 11 h4,131 subs |
| dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on | 2 h 42 min970 subs | 3 h 13 min1,157 subs | 5 h 29 min1,975 subs |
The Vespera II has no built-in dual-band filter. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar; the app detects which is fitted. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.
About the Jellyfish Nebula
A supernova remnant beside Propus in Gemini, with a bright rim like a jellyfish bell. Faint; dual-band and hours.
IC 443, Sh2-248 · Supernova remnant in Gemini · magnitude 12.0 · 50′ × 40′ · best in Dec, Jan, Feb. 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 Vaonis Vespera II
A 50 mm quadruplet on an 8 MP sensor with Vaonis’s mosaic mode for wide fields. Same optics class as the Seestar S50, four times the pixels.
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; the app detects which is fitted.
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 Jellyfish Nebula from a Vespera II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Jellyfish Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 4 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 4 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 4 h 43 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 4 h 51 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 4 h 52 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 3 h 56 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 3 h 09 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 23 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 15 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 6 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 14 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 6 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 28 h from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 45 min from Bortle 6
- Jellyfish Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 2 h 23 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Jellyfish Nebula · All targets for the Vespera II