How long to image the Whirlpool Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 59 min (352 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Whirlpool Galaxy. A quick look takes 15 min; a showpiece 3 h 54 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 24 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 13% 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 min125 subs | 1 h 23 min498 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 5 min33 subs | 22 min132 subs | 1 h 28 min526 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 6 min37 subs | 24 min145 subs | 1 h 36 min579 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 7 min45 subs | 29 min177 subs | 1 h 58 min706 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 9 min57 subs | 38 min228 subs | 2 h 31 min909 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 15 min88 subs | 59 min352 subs | 3 h 54 min1,405 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 24 min147 subs | 1 h 38 min588 subs | 6 h 32 min2,351 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 40 min239 subs | 2 h 39 min955 subs | 11 h3,820 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 12 min435 subs | 4 h 50 min1,739 subs | 19 h6,953 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 16 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.)
- 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.
Affiliate links: the retailer pays us a small commission and you pay the same price. These are search links to the named product, not endorsements of a particular listing; check the listing matches your model.
Everything that fits the Vespera II →
How it frames
The Whirlpool Galaxy is 11′ × 7′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 13% 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 | 24 min145 subs | 38 min228 subs | 1 h 38 min588 subs |
| 20 s | 21 min63 subs | 35 min104 subs | 1 h 35 min285 subs |
| 30 s | 20 min40 subs | 34 min68 subs | 1 h 34 min188 subs |
About the Whirlpool Galaxy
The classic face-on spiral with its companion tugging at one arm. Small in a smart scope but bright; the arms appear within an hour, the tidal bridge needs several.
M51, NGC 5194 · Galaxy in Canes Venatici · magnitude 8.4 · 11′ × 7′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. 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 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 Whirlpool Galaxy from a Vespera II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 59 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 08 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 25 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 58 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 48 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 11 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 56 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 52 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 16 min from Bortle 6
- Whirlpool Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 21 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Whirlpool Galaxy · All targets for the Vespera II