How long to image the M23 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 M23. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 15 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 31% 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 | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 15 min90 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 2 min10 subs | 6 min34 subs | 22 min134 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 2 min15 subs | 9 min57 subs | 38 min226 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 M23 is 27′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 31% 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 | 5 min30 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 M23
A bright, scattered open cluster on the edge of the Sagittarius star clouds.
NGC 6494 · Open cluster in Sagittarius · magnitude 5.5 · 27′ · best in May, Jun, Jul. 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 M23 from a Vespera II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M23 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 6 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 9 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M23 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6