How long to image the M110 with the Vaonis Vespera II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 3 h 46 min (1,359 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M110. A quick look takes 57 min; a showpiece 15 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 23 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 26% 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 | 17 min104 subs | 1 h 09 min414 subs | 4 h 35 min1,653 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 18 min111 subs | 1 h 14 min443 subs | 4 h 55 min1,769 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 21 min125 subs | 1 h 23 min498 subs | 5 h 31 min1,989 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 26 min158 subs | 1 h 45 min631 subs | 7 h2,521 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 35 min211 subs | 2 h 20 min841 subs | 9 h 21 min3,364 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 57 min340 subs | 3 h 46 min1,359 subs | 15 h5,434 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 1 h 38 min587 subs | 6 h 31 min2,345 subs | 26 h9,377 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 2 h 41 min969 subs | 11 h3,875 subs | 43 h15,500 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 4 h 57 min1,785 subs | 20 h7,140 subs | 79 h28,558 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 4 h 54 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.
- 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.
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Everything that fits the Vespera II →
How it frames
The M110 is 22′ × 11′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 26% 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 23 min498 subs | 2 h 20 min841 subs | 6 h 31 min2,345 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 09 min209 subs | 2 h 07 min381 subs | 6 h 17 min1,132 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 05 min130 subs | 2 h 02 min245 subs | 6 h 13 min746 subs |
About the M110
Andromeda's larger, diffuse elliptical companion. Low surface brightness; it fades into the background in short stacks.
NGC 205 · Galaxy in Andromeda · magnitude 8.1 · 22′ × 11′ · best in Sep, Oct, Nov. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Galaxies are broadband targets: their light is mostly starlight spread across the spectrum, so a dual-band filter throws most of it away and makes things slower, not faster. Shoot without a filter (or with a plain UV/IR cut) and rely on total time and a dark sky. The core of a galaxy is usually many times brighter than its outer disc, so a short stack shows the nucleus long before the arms; the figures here are for the arms and disc, not the core.
Field rotation in Alt-Az mode crops the edges of the stack over a long session, so on a big galaxy re-centre now and then or use EQ mode where your scope supports it.
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 M110 from a Vespera II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M110 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 3 h 46 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 4 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 3 h 58 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 4 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 5 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 3 h 45 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the DwarfLab Draco: 3 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 13 h from Bortle 6
- M110 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 8 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 3 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 8 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 3 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- M110 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 16 h from Bortle 6
- M110 with the Celestron Origin: 1 h from Bortle 6
- M110 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 22 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M110 · All targets for the Vespera II