How long to image the Triangulum Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2 needs about 5 h 46 min (2,075 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Triangulum Galaxy. A quick look takes 1 h 26 min; a showpiece 23 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 h 21 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 74% 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 | 30 min182 subs | 2 h 01 min725 subs | 8 h 03 min2,899 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 32 min192 subs | 2 h 08 min767 subs | 8 h 31 min3,065 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 35 min212 subs | 2 h 21 min845 subs | 9 h 23 min3,379 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 43 min259 subs | 2 h 52 min1,035 subs | 11 h4,139 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 56 min334 subs | 3 h 43 min1,336 subs | 15 h5,343 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 26 min519 subs | 5 h 46 min2,075 subs | 23 h8,299 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 25 min871 subs | 9 h 40 min3,483 subs | 39 h13,931 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 3 h 56 min1,418 subs | 16 h5,669 subs | 63 h22,675 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 h 10 min2,583 subs | 29 h10,331 subs | 110+ h41,324 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 7 h 30 min of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 3 h 45 min each. The Vespera Pro 2’s battery (rated about 11 h) should cover each night; 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 30WExternal bank extends the 11 h battery.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
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How it frames
The Triangulum Galaxy is 73′ × 45′ across. The Vespera Pro 2 frames 1.65° × 1.65° at 1.68″ per pixel, so it fills 74% 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; CovalENS mosaic gives 3.2° × 3.2° at 50 MP. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 2 h 21 min845 subs | 3 h 43 min1,336 subs | 9 h 40 min3,483 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 56 min348 subs | 3 h 18 min594 subs | 9 h 16 min1,667 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 48 min216 subs | 3 h 10 min380 subs | 9 h 07 min1,095 subs |
About the Triangulum Galaxy
Big, face-on and low in surface brightness. Nearly as bright as M31 overall but spread thin, so it needs far more time. Its H II regions pop with a dual-band filter.
M33, NGC 598 · Galaxy in Triangulum · magnitude 5.7 · 73′ × 45′ · 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 2
The square-sensor 2026 Vespera with 2 µm pixels. Sharper than the Vespera 3 on small targets and correspondingly slower per pixel; the 12.5 MP square frame suits galaxies and planetaries.
10 s subs by default; Expert Mode manual targets allow 1 to 30 s. Alt-azimuth only; CovalENS mosaic gives 3.2° × 3.2° at 50 MP. 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 Triangulum Galaxy from a Vespera Pro 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Triangulum Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 2 h 42 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 2 h 57 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 2 h 50 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 3 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 3 h 55 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 2 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 2 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 9 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 42 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 6 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 2 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 11 h from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Triangulum Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 59 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Triangulum Galaxy · All targets for the Vespera Pro 2