How long to image the Crab Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2 needs about 1 h 21 min (488 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Crab Nebula. A quick look takes 20 min; a showpiece 5 h 25 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 39 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 6% 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 | 9 min53 subs | 35 min211 subs | 2 h 20 min841 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 9 min55 subs | 36 min219 subs | 2 h 26 min875 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 10 min59 subs | 39 min235 subs | 2 h 36 min939 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 11 min69 subs | 46 min274 subs | 3 h 02 min1,095 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 14 min84 subs | 56 min336 subs | 3 h 44 min1,342 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 20 min122 subs | 1 h 21 min488 subs | 5 h 25 min1,949 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 32 min194 subs | 2 h 09 min776 subs | 8 h 37 min3,104 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 51 min307 subs | 3 h 24 min1,225 subs | 14 h4,899 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 31 min546 subs | 6 h 04 min2,182 subs | 24 h8,726 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 46 min of run time. The Vespera Pro 2’s battery (rated about 11 h) should cover it; 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 30WExternal bank extends the 11 h battery.
- 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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How it frames
The Crab Nebula is 6′ × 4′ across. The Vespera Pro 2 frames 1.65° × 1.65° at 1.68″ per pixel, so it fills 6% 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; CovalENS mosaic gives 3.2° × 3.2° at 50 MP. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 39 min235 subs | 56 min336 subs | 2 h 09 min776 subs |
| 20 s | 34 min103 subs | 51 min153 subs | 2 h 04 min373 subs |
| 30 s | 32 min65 subs | 49 min99 subs | 2 h 03 min246 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 39 min235 subs | 56 min336 subs | 2 h 09 min776 subs |
| dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on | 52 min310 subs | 57 min341 subs | 1 h 19 min476 subs |
The Vespera Pro 2 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 Crab Nebula
The remains of the supernova of 1054, a tangle of filaments around a pulsar. Small but bright enough for a good result in an evening.
M1, NGC 1952 · Supernova remnant in Taurus · magnitude 8.4 · 6′ × 4′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. 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 Pro 2
The square-sensor 2026 Vespera with 2 µm pixels. Sharper than the Vespera 3 on small targets and correspondingly slower per pixel; the 12.5 MP square frame suits galaxies and planetaries.
10 s subs by default; Expert Mode manual targets allow 1 to 30 s. Alt-azimuth only; CovalENS mosaic gives 3.2° × 3.2° at 50 MP. 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 Crab Nebula from a Vespera Pro 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Crab Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 28 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 31 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 31 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 33 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 37 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 28 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 22 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 2 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 38 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 25 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 37 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 34 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 2 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 10 min from Bortle 6
- Crab Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 14 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Crab Nebula · All targets for the Vespera Pro 2