How long to image the Orion Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2 needs about 36 min (217 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Orion Nebula. A quick look takes 9 min; a showpiece 2 h 24 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 17 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 86% 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 | 4 min24 subs | 16 min94 subs | 1 h 02 min374 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 4 min25 subs | 16 min98 subs | 1 h 05 min389 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 4 min27 subs | 17 min105 subs | 1 h 10 min418 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 5 min31 subs | 20 min122 subs | 1 h 21 min487 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 6 min38 subs | 25 min150 subs | 1 h 39 min597 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 9 min55 subs | 36 min217 subs | 2 h 24 min866 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 14 min87 subs | 57 min345 subs | 3 h 50 min1,380 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 23 min137 subs | 1 h 31 min545 subs | 6 h 03 min2,178 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 40 min243 subs | 2 h 42 min970 subs | 11 h3,878 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 47 min of run time. The Vespera Pro 2’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, and 30% off the battery for a December night.)
- 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.
- 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 Pro 2 →
How it frames
The Orion Nebula is 85′ × 60′ across. The Vespera Pro 2 frames 1.65° × 1.65° at 1.68″ per pixel, so it fills 86% 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 | 17 min105 subs | 25 min150 subs | 57 min345 subs |
| 20 s | 15 min46 subs | 23 min68 subs | 55 min166 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 22 min44 subs | 54 min109 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 17 min105 subs | 25 min150 subs | 57 min345 subs |
| dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on | 23 min138 subs | 25 min152 subs | 35 min212 subs |
The Vespera Pro 2 has no built-in dual-band filter. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar. 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 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 Orion Nebula 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
- 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 II: 17 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 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 Pro 2