How long to image the Ring Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera 3 needs about 7 min (45 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Ring Nebula. A quick look takes 2 min; a showpiece 30 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 5 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 small in the frame, about 34 pixels across.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 16 min96 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 16 min99 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 17 min104 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 2 min10 subs | 5 min30 subs | 19 min115 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 2 min10 subs | 6 min34 subs | 22 min134 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 2 min12 subs | 7 min45 subs | 30 min180 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 3 min17 subs | 11 min67 subs | 44 min267 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 min26 subs | 17 min101 subs | 1 h 07 min402 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 min44 subs | 29 min173 subs | 1 h 55 min691 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 10 min of run time. The Vespera 3’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.)
- USB-C PD power bank 20000mAh 30WVaonis says an external bank extends sessions; 30 W PD as for the II and Pro.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
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Everything that fits the Vespera 3 →
How it frames
The Ring Nebula is 1.4′ × 1′ across. The Vespera 3 frames 2.60° × 1.46° at 2.44″ per pixel, so it is small in the frame, about 34 pixels across. It is worth doing, but the result is a crop rather than a full frame; a longer focal length would resolve more of it.
Longer subs
10 s subs by default; Expert Mode manual targets allow 1 to 30 s. Alt-azimuth only; CovalENS mosaic widens the field to 4.3° × 2.4°. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 5 min30 subs | 6 min34 subs | 11 min67 subs |
| 20 s | 10 min30 subs | 10 min30 subs | 11 min33 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs | 15 min30 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 5 min30 subs | 6 min34 subs | 11 min67 subs |
| dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on | 6 min34 subs | 6 min37 subs | 8 min47 subs |
The Vespera 3 has no built-in dual-band filter. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar. The new optical baffle is not a substitute for a CLS filter. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.
About the Ring Nebula
A tiny, bright smoke ring. It is small in a smart scope but so bright per pixel that a few minutes show the ring; the faint outer halo is another matter.
M57, NGC 6720 · Planetary nebula in Lyra · magnitude 8.8 · 1.4′ × 1′ · best in Jun, Jul, Aug. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Planetary nebulae are small but intensely bright per pixel in OIII and H-alpha, so they respond very well to a dual-band filter and do not need much time for the main shell. The faint outer halos most of them have are a different proposition and need hours. Keep subs short if the central region saturates.
About the Vaonis Vespera 3
The 2026 Vespera: same 50 mm quadruplet class as the II on an 8 MP IMX585, with a 24 MP mosaic mode and 11 hours of battery. Per pixel it behaves like a Seestar S50 Pro without the built-in dual-band filter.
10 s subs by default; Expert Mode manual targets allow 1 to 30 s. Alt-azimuth only; CovalENS mosaic widens the field to 4.3° × 2.4°. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar. The new optical baffle is not a substitute for a CLS filter.
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 Ring Nebula from a Vespera 3? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Ring Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 7 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 7 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 10 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 25 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 17 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 16 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 6 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 28 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- Ring Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Ring Nebula · All targets for the Vespera 3