How long to image the M110 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 8 h 28 min (3,048 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M110. A quick look takes 2 h 07 min; a showpiece 34 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 3 h 26 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 23% 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 | 44 min266 subs | 2 h 57 min1,061 subs | 12 h4,241 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 47 min281 subs | 3 h 07 min1,122 subs | 12 h4,486 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 52 min310 subs | 3 h 26 min1,237 subs | 14 h4,947 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 h 03 min380 subs | 4 h 13 min1,517 subs | 17 h6,066 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 1 h 22 min490 subs | 5 h 27 min1,960 subs | 22 h7,840 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 h 07 min762 subs | 8 h 28 min3,048 subs | 34 h12,191 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 3 h 33 min1,281 subs | 14 h5,121 subs | 57 h20,482 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 5 h 47 min2,085 subs | 23 h8,339 subs | 93 h33,356 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 11 h3,801 subs | 42 h15,203 subs | 170+ h60,810 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 30 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.)
- 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.
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Everything that fits the Vespera Pro →
How it frames
The M110 is 22′ × 11′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 23% 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 26 min1,237 subs | 5 h 27 min1,960 subs | 14 h5,121 subs |
| 20 s | 2 h 48 min505 subs | 4 h 49 min866 subs | 14 h2,447 subs |
| 30 s | 2 h 35 min311 subs | 4 h 36 min552 subs | 13 h1,606 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 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 M110 from a Vespera Pro? 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 II: 3 h 46 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 Pro