How long to image the M61 with the Vaonis Vespera 3
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera 3 needs about 2 h 59 min (1,074 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M61. A quick look takes 45 min; a showpiece 12 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 09 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 7% 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 | 15 min88 subs | 58 min351 subs | 3 h 53 min1,401 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 16 min94 subs | 1 h 02 min373 subs | 4 h 08 min1,490 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 17 min104 subs | 1 h 09 min415 subs | 4 h 36 min1,658 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 22 min130 subs | 1 h 26 min517 subs | 5 h 44 min2,065 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 28 min170 subs | 1 h 53 min678 subs | 7 h 32 min2,711 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 45 min269 subs | 2 h 59 min1,074 subs | 12 h4,296 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 1 h 16 min458 subs | 5 h 05 min1,829 subs | 20 h7,315 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 2 h 05 min751 subs | 8 h 20 min3,001 subs | 33 h12,003 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 3 h 49 min1,376 subs | 15 h5,501 subs | 61 h22,001 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 3 h 53 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 M61 is 6′ × 5.5′ across. The Vespera 3 frames 2.60° × 1.46° at 2.44″ per pixel, so it fills 7% 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 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 | 1 h 09 min415 subs | 1 h 53 min678 subs | 5 h 05 min1,829 subs |
| 20 s | 59 min178 subs | 1 h 43 min310 subs | 4 h 55 min885 subs |
| 30 s | 56 min112 subs | 1 h 40 min200 subs | 4 h 52 min584 subs |
About the M61
A face-on barred spiral at the southern end of the Virgo cluster, with well-defined arms.
NGC 4303 · Galaxy in Virgo · magnitude 9.7 · 6′ × 5.5′ · 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 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 M61 from a Vespera 3? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M61 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 3 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 3 h 25 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 3 h 17 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 3 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 4 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 3 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the DwarfLab Draco: 2 h 34 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 11 h from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 3 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 6 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 6 h 40 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 50 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 13 h from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Celestron Origin: 50 min from Bortle 6
- M61 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 08 min from Bortle 6