How long to image the M32 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 45 min (273 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M32. A quick look takes 11 min; a showpiece 3 h 02 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 23 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 8% 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 | 5 min32 subs | 21 min126 subs | 1 h 24 min504 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 5 min33 subs | 22 min131 subs | 1 h 27 min522 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 6 min35 subs | 23 min139 subs | 1 h 33 min556 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 7 min40 subs | 27 min160 subs | 1 h 46 min639 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 8 min49 subs | 32 min193 subs | 2 h 08 min770 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 11 min69 subs | 45 min273 subs | 3 h 02 min1,091 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 18 min107 subs | 1 h 11 min426 subs | 4 h 44 min1,702 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 28 min166 subs | 1 h 50 min663 subs | 7 h 22 min2,652 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 49 min293 subs | 3 h 15 min1,170 subs | 13 h4,677 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 59 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 M32 is 8′ × 6′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 8% 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 | 23 min139 subs | 32 min193 subs | 1 h 11 min426 subs |
| 20 s | 20 min62 subs | 29 min88 subs | 1 h 08 min205 subs |
| 30 s | 19 min39 subs | 28 min57 subs | 1 h 07 min135 subs |
About the M32
The compact elliptical companion of Andromeda, sitting on its disc. Appears in every M31 frame.
NGC 221 · Galaxy in Andromeda · magnitude 8.1 · 8′ × 6′ · 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 M32 from a Vespera Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M32 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 22 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 21 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 24 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 30 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the DwarfLab Draco: 17 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 43 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 18 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M32 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 8 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M32 · All targets for the Vespera Pro