How long to image the Pleiades 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 Pleiades. 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 is just over the frame at 1.1×.
| 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, and 30% off the battery for a November 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 Pleiades is 110′ across. The Vespera Pro 2 frames 1.65° × 1.65° at 1.68″ per pixel, so it is just over the frame at 1.1×. Point at the part you want; the edges will fall outside the frame.
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 Pleiades
The stars take seconds. The blue reflection nebulosity around them is faint and needs hours from any sky, and no filter helps because it is starlight, not emission.
M45, Seven Sisters · Reflection nebula in Taurus · magnitude 1.6 · 110′ · best in Oct, Nov, Dec. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Reflection nebulae are starlight scattered by dust, so they are broadband and blue. A dual-band filter removes almost all of it; do not use one. These are among the faintest structures a smart scope can attempt and the figures run long. A dark sky matters more here than for any other type, and the Moon must be down.
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 Pleiades 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
- Pleiades with the ZWO Seestar S50: 2 h 42 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 2 h 57 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the ZWO Seestar S30: 2 h 50 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 3 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 3 h 55 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 2 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the DwarfLab Draco: 2 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 9 h 16 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 42 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 6 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 2 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 28 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the Unistellar Odyssey: 11 h from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the Celestron Origin: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Pleiades with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 59 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Pleiades · All targets for the Vespera Pro 2