How long to image the M18 with the Vaonis Vespera II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 5 min (30 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M18. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 17 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 5 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 10% 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 | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 17 min104 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 min10 subs | 6 min38 subs | 25 min150 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 2 min14 subs | 9 min56 subs | 37 min222 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 4 min24 subs | 16 min94 subs | 1 h 03 min376 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 7 min of run time. The Vespera II’s battery (rated about 4 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.)
- 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 M18 is 9′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 10% 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 | 5 min30 subs | 5 min30 subs | 6 min38 subs |
| 20 s | 10 min30 subs | 10 min30 subs | 10 min30 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs |
About the M18
A small, sparse open cluster just south of the Omega Nebula. Usually caught in the same frame.
NGC 6613 · Open cluster in Sagittarius · magnitude 6.9 · 9′ · best in Jun, Jul, Aug. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Open clusters are the easiest targets in the sky. The stars are bright, so the aim is colour and tight stars rather than depth: short subs, no filter, and stop before the bright members saturate. The nominal time here gets you clean star colour; more integration only adds background stars.
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 M18 from a Vespera II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M18 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 14 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 9 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 9 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 3 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M18 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6