How long to image the Little Dumbbell with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 1 h 41 min (605 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Little Dumbbell. A quick look takes 25 min; a showpiece 6 h 43 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 48 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 3% 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 | 11 min65 subs | 43 min258 subs | 2 h 52 min1,030 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 11 min68 subs | 45 min269 subs | 2 h 59 min1,073 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 12 min73 subs | 48 min289 subs | 3 h 12 min1,153 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 14 min85 subs | 56 min338 subs | 3 h 45 min1,349 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 17 min104 subs | 1 h 09 min415 subs | 4 h 36 min1,658 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 25 min152 subs | 1 h 41 min605 subs | 6 h 43 min2,417 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 40 min242 subs | 2 h 41 min966 subs | 11 h3,864 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h 04 min382 subs | 4 h 15 min1,528 subs | 17 h6,110 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 54 min682 subs | 7 h 34 min2,726 subs | 30 h10,901 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 11 min of run time. The Vespera Pro’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 30WExtends the 11 h battery; 30 W PD per Vaonis.
- 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 Little Dumbbell is 2.7′ × 1.8′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 3% 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 | 48 min289 subs | 1 h 09 min415 subs | 2 h 41 min966 subs |
| 20 s | 41 min125 subs | 1 h 02 min188 subs | 2 h 34 min464 subs |
| 30 s | 39 min79 subs | 1 h121 subs | 2 h 32 min305 subs |
With and without the dual-band filter
| Filter | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No filter | 48 min289 subs | 1 h 09 min415 subs | 2 h 41 min966 subs |
| dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on | 1 h 04 min382 subs | 1 h 10 min421 subs | 1 h 38 min590 subs |
The Vespera Pro has no built-in dual-band filter. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.
About the Little Dumbbell
A small, bright-per-pixel planetary in Perseus. Dual-band makes the two lobes and the faint wings much easier.
M76, NGC 650 · Planetary nebula in Perseus · magnitude 10.1 · 2.7′ × 1.8′ · best in Sep, Oct, Nov. 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 Pro
The square-sensor Vespera with 2 µm pixels. Higher resolution than the II, and correspondingly slower per pixel: expect around double the time for the same per-pixel SNR. Run-out in 2026 and replaced by the Vespera Pro 2.
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.
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 Little Dumbbell from a Vespera Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Little Dumbbell with the ZWO Seestar S50: 33 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 36 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the ZWO Seestar S30: 37 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 39 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 32 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the DwarfLab Draco: 26 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 2 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Vaonis Vespera II: 45 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 40 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Unistellar Odyssey: 3 h 01 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Celestron Origin: 12 min from Bortle 6
- Little Dumbbell with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 17 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Little Dumbbell · All targets for the Vespera Pro