How long to image the M77 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2 needs about 1 h 04 min (384 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M77. A quick look takes 16 min; a showpiece 4 h 16 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 31 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 | 7 min43 subs | 28 min170 subs | 1 h 53 min680 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 7 min45 subs | 29 min177 subs | 1 h 58 min706 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 8 min48 subs | 31 min189 subs | 2 h 06 min756 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 9 min55 subs | 36 min219 subs | 2 h 26 min876 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 11 min67 subs | 44 min267 subs | 2 h 58 min1,067 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 16 min96 subs | 1 h 04 min384 subs | 4 h 16 min1,536 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 25 min152 subs | 1 h 41 min608 subs | 6 h 45 min2,429 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 40 min239 subs | 2 h 39 min954 subs | 11 h3,816 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 11 min424 subs | 4 h 42 min1,694 subs | 19 h6,774 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 23 min of run time. The Vespera Pro 2’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, and 30% off the battery for a November night.)
- USB-C PD power bank 20000mAh 30WExternal bank extends the 11 h battery.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
- hand warmers long lastingAir-activated packs give hours of heat for the person; winter nights are long and you spend most of them standing still.
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How it frames
The M77 is 7′ × 6′ across. The Vespera Pro 2 frames 1.65° × 1.65° at 1.68″ 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 gives 3.2° × 3.2° at 50 MP. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 31 min189 subs | 44 min267 subs | 1 h 41 min608 subs |
| 20 s | 28 min83 subs | 41 min122 subs | 1 h 37 min292 subs |
| 30 s | 26 min53 subs | 39 min79 subs | 1 h 36 min192 subs |
About the M77
A Seyfert galaxy with a blazing core and faint outer arms. The nucleus is easy; the arms are not.
NGC 1068 · Galaxy in Cetus · magnitude 8.9 · 7′ × 6′ · best in Oct, Nov, Dec. 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 Pro 2
The square-sensor 2026 Vespera with 2 µm pixels. Sharper than the Vespera 3 on small targets and correspondingly slower per pixel; the 12.5 MP square frame suits galaxies and planetaries.
10 s subs by default; Expert Mode manual targets allow 1 to 30 s. Alt-azimuth only; CovalENS mosaic gives 3.2° × 3.2° at 50 MP. 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 M77 from a Vespera Pro 2? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M77 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 30 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 33 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 32 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 35 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 44 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 30 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the DwarfLab Draco: 25 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 30 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 29 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 26 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Celestron Origin: 8 min from Bortle 6
- M77 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 11 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M77 · All targets for the Vespera Pro 2