How long should I image the Andromeda Galaxy with the Vespera 3 from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 1 h 24 min of total integration for a solid image, or 5 h 34 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 21 min.

How many subs is that on the Vespera 3?

At the default 10 s sub length, 502 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 193 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Andromeda Galaxy?

No. The Andromeda Galaxy is a broadband target and a dual-band filter blocks most of its light. Shoot without a filter.

How long to image the Andromeda Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera 3 needs about 1 h 24 min (502 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Andromeda Galaxy. A quick look takes 21 min; a showpiece 5 h 34 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 32 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 is 2.0× wider than the frame.

Andromeda Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	7 min41 subs	27 min163 subs	1 h 48 min651 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	7 min44 subs	29 min174 subs	1 h 55 min693 subs
Bortle 3Rural	8 min49 subs	32 min193 subs	2 h 09 min772 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	10 min61 subs	40 min241 subs	2 h 40 min962 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	13 min80 subs	53 min317 subs	3 h 31 min1,265 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	21 min126 subs	1 h 24 min502 subs	5 h 34 min2,006 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	36 min214 subs	2 h 22 min855 subs	9 h 30 min3,420 subs
Bortle 8City	58 min351 subs	3 h 54 min1,404 subs	16 h5,614 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	1 h 47 min644 subs	7 h 09 min2,574 subs	29 h10,294 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 49 min of run time. The Vespera 3’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 30WVaonis says an external bank extends sessions; 30 W PD as for the II and Pro.
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Everything that fits the Vespera 3 →

How it frames

The Andromeda Galaxy is 178′ × 63′ across. The Vespera 3 frames 2.60° × 1.46° at 2.44″ per pixel, so it is 2.0× wider than the frame. A mosaic, or choosing the part you want and letting the rest go, is how it gets shot on this scope.

Longer subs

10 s subs by default; Expert Mode manual targets allow 1 to 30 s. Alt-azimuth only; CovalENS mosaic widens the field to 4.3° × 2.4°. Time for a solid image by sub length:

Sub length	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
10 s	32 min193 subs	53 min317 subs	2 h 22 min855 subs
20 s	28 min83 subs	48 min145 subs	2 h 18 min414 subs
30 s	26 min52 subs	47 min94 subs	2 h 16 min273 subs

About the Andromeda Galaxy

The nearest big spiral and the most imaged galaxy in the sky. The core arrives in minutes, the dust lanes in an hour, the faint outer disc needs a whole night. Too big for most smart-scope fields without mosaic.

M31, NGC 224 · Galaxy in Andromeda · magnitude 3.4 · 178′ × 63′ · 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 3

The 2026 Vespera: same 50 mm quadruplet class as the II on an 8 MP IMX585, with a 24 MP mosaic mode and 11 hours of battery. Per pixel it behaves like a Seestar S50 Pro without the built-in dual-band filter.

10 s subs by default; Expert Mode manual targets allow 1 to 30 s. Alt-azimuth only; CovalENS mosaic widens the field to 4.3° × 2.4°. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar. The new optical baffle is not a substitute for a CLS filter.

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.

Where to buy the Vespera 3Vaonis store Direct Amazon UK Amazon USThe Vaonis store link is a plain link; the others are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Imaged the Andromeda Galaxy with your Vespera 3? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Andromeda Galaxy from a Vespera 3? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.

Same target, other telescopes

All telescopes for the Andromeda Galaxy · All targets for the Vespera 3