How long to image the M74 with the Vaonis Vespera 3
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera 3 needs about 5 h 16 min (1,894 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M74. A quick look takes 1 h 19 min; a showpiece 21 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 54 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 11% 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 | 24 min143 subs | 1 h 35 min570 subs | 6 h 20 min2,278 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 25 min153 subs | 1 h 42 min611 subs | 6 h 47 min2,441 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 29 min172 subs | 1 h 54 min687 subs | 7 h 38 min2,748 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 36 min219 subs | 2 h 26 min874 subs | 9 h 42 min3,494 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 49 min293 subs | 3 h 15 min1,169 subs | 13 h4,675 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 19 min474 subs | 5 h 16 min1,894 subs | 21 h7,574 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 16 min819 subs | 9 h 06 min3,275 subs | 36 h13,098 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 3 h 46 min1,355 subs | 15 h5,419 subs | 60 h21,675 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 6 h 56 min2,498 subs | 28 h9,992 subs | 110+ h39,966 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 6 h 50 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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How it frames
The M74 is 10′ × 9.5′ across. The Vespera 3 frames 2.60° × 1.46° at 2.44″ per pixel, so it fills 11% 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 54 min687 subs | 3 h 15 min1,169 subs | 9 h 06 min3,275 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 36 min290 subs | 2 h 57 min531 subs | 8 h 48 min1,584 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 30 min181 subs | 2 h 51 min342 subs | 8 h 42 min1,044 subs |
About the M74
A perfect face-on spiral with very low surface brightness, hence the nickname. One of the hardest Messier objects for small scopes.
NGC 628, Phantom Galaxy · Galaxy in Pisces · magnitude 9.4 · 10′ × 9.5′ · best in Sep, Oct, Nov. 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 M74 from a Vespera 3? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M74 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 5 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 6 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 5 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 6 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 7 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 5 h 29 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the DwarfLab Draco: 4 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 19 h from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 5 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 12 h from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 12 h from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 5 h 03 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 23 h from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- M74 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 1 h 59 min from Bortle 6