How long to image the M2 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 23 min (138 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M2. A quick look takes 6 min; a showpiece 1 h 32 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 12 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 16% 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 | 3 min17 subs | 11 min65 subs | 43 min257 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 3 min17 subs | 11 min67 subs | 44 min266 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 3 min18 subs | 12 min71 subs | 47 min283 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 3 min21 subs | 14 min82 subs | 54 min325 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 4 min25 subs | 16 min98 subs | 1 h 05 min391 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 6 min35 subs | 23 min138 subs | 1 h 32 min552 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 9 min54 subs | 36 min215 subs | 2 h 23 min859 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 14 min84 subs | 56 min334 subs | 3 h 43 min1,336 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 25 min148 subs | 1 h 38 min589 subs | 6 h 32 min2,353 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 30 min of run time. The Vespera Pro’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.)
- 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 M2 is 16′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 16% 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 | 12 min71 subs | 16 min98 subs | 36 min215 subs |
| 20 s | 10 min32 subs | 15 min45 subs | 34 min104 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 34 min68 subs |
About the M2
A rich, compact globular in Aquarius. Resolves well at the edges even in a short stack.
NGC 7089 · Globular cluster in Aquarius · magnitude 6.5 · 16′ · best in Jul, Aug, Sep. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Globular clusters are point sources packed tight, so they come quickly: the core resolves into stars within a handful of minutes on any smart scope. More time deepens the halo and pulls in the faint outer members. Use short subs so the core does not saturate into a white blob, and no filter.
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 M2 from a Vespera Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M2 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 10 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 11 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 11 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 12 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 10 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 34 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 10 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 10 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 22 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 9 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 40 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M2 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6