How long to image the Orion Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 17 min (103 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Orion Nebula. A quick look takes 4 min; a showpiece 1 h 08 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 8 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 only just fits, at 99% of the short side.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 2 min11 subs | 7 min42 subs | 27 min165 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min11 subs | 7 min43 subs | 29 min172 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min12 subs | 8 min47 subs | 31 min186 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min14 subs | 9 min56 subs | 37 min221 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 3 min18 subs | 11 min69 subs | 46 min275 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 4 min26 subs | 17 min103 subs | 1 h 08 min409 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 7 min42 subs | 28 min166 subs | 1 h 50 min663 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 11 min67 subs | 44 min265 subs | 2 h 56 min1,058 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 20 min119 subs | 1 h 19 min475 subs | 5 h 17 min1,900 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 22 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, and 30% off the battery for a December night.)
- 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.
- hand warmers long lastingAir-activated packs give hours of heat for the person; winter nights are long and you spend most of them standing still.
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Everything that fits the Vespera II →
How it frames
The Orion Nebula is 85′ × 60′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it only just fits, at 99% of the short side. Centre it carefully: there is no room to crop back afterwards.
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 | 8 min47 subs | 11 min69 subs | 28 min166 subs |
| 20 s | 10 min30 subs | 11 min32 subs | 27 min81 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 26 min53 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 8 min47 subs | 11 min69 subs | 28 min166 subs |
| dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on | 10 min58 subs | 11 min65 subs | 16 min95 subs |
The Vespera II has no built-in dual-band filter. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar; the app detects which is fitted. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.
About the Orion Nebula
The brightest nebula in the northern sky and the one every smart scope gets pointed at first. The core saturates in a minute; the wings and the Running Man need real time. Mix short and long stacks.
M42, NGC 1976 · Emission nebula in Orion · magnitude 4.0 · 85′ × 60′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Emission nebulae glow in a few narrow lines, mostly hydrogen-alpha (deep red) and doubly ionised oxygen (teal). A dual-band filter passes those lines and blocks most skyglow, which is why it cuts the time needed from a suburban sky so dramatically. Use it. From a genuinely dark site the gain is smaller because there is less skyglow to block, and read noise becomes the limit, which is where longer subs (EQ mode, or Expert Mode on a Vespera) earn their keep.
Stars lose colour through a dual-band filter; a short broadband stack blended in fixes that if you care.
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 Orion Nebula from a Vespera II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Orion Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 12 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 14 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 14 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 16 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 12 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 57 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 38 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 16 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 36 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Orion Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 6 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Orion Nebula · All targets for the Vespera II