How long should I image the Pelican Nebula with the Vespera II from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 3 h 13 min of total integration for a solid image, or 13 h for a showpiece. A quick look takes 48 min.

How many subs is that on the Vespera II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 1,161 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 429 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Pelican Nebula?

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 3 h 13 min to 2 h.

How long to image the Pelican Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 3 h 13 min (1,161 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Pelican Nebula. A quick look takes 48 min; a showpiece 13 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 11 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 70% of the frame’s short side.

Pelican Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	15 min90 subs	59 min357 subs	3 h 58 min1,427 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	16 min96 subs	1 h 04 min382 subs	4 h 14 min1,526 subs
Bortle 3Rural	18 min108 subs	1 h 11 min429 subs	4 h 45 min1,713 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	23 min136 subs	1 h 30 min542 subs	6 h 01 min2,165 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	30 min181 subs	2 h721 subs	8 h2,883 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	48 min291 subs	3 h 13 min1,161 subs	13 h4,642 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	1 h 23 min500 subs	5 h 33 min1,999 subs	22 h7,996 subs
Bortle 8City	2 h 18 min826 subs	9 h 10 min3,301 subs	37 h13,202 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	4 h 13 min1,520 subs	17 h6,077 subs	68 h24,306 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 4 h 11 min of run time. The Vespera II’s battery is rated at about 4 h, so the session needs an external power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time.)

USB-C PD power bank 20000mAh 30WOnly four hours inside; Vaonis specifies a 30 W PD source. C-to-C cable not included.
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Vaonis Vespera hygrometer sensorTriggers the built-in demister automatically; the correct dew accessory for the II.
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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 Pelican Nebula is 60′ × 50′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 70% 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	1 h 11 min429 subs	2 h721 subs	5 h 33 min1,999 subs
20 s	1 h180 subs	1 h 49 min327 subs	5 h 22 min966 subs
30 s	56 min113 subs	1 h 45 min210 subs	5 h 18 min636 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	1 h 11 min429 subs	2 h721 subs	5 h 33 min1,999 subs
dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on	1 h 23 min496 subs	1 h 37 min585 subs	2 h 43 min976 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 Pelican Nebula

The North America Nebula's neighbour across a dark gulf, with pillars along its beak. Fainter than NGC 7000 and worth its own session.

IC 5070 · Emission nebula in Cygnus · magnitude 8.0 · 60′ × 50′ · best in Jul, Aug, Sep. 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 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.

Where to buy the Vespera IIVaonis store Direct Amazon UK Amazon USThe Vaonis 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 Pelican Nebula with your Vespera II? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Pelican 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

All telescopes for the Pelican Nebula · All targets for the Vespera II