How long to image the M80 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 24 min (145 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M80. A quick look takes 6 min; a showpiece 1 h 36 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 13 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 10% 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 | 3 min18 subs | 12 min72 subs | 47 min285 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 3 min19 subs | 12 min74 subs | 49 min294 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 3 min20 subs | 13 min78 subs | 52 min311 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 4 min22 subs | 15 min88 subs | 59 min352 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 4 min27 subs | 17 min105 subs | 1 h 10 min418 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 6 min37 subs | 24 min145 subs | 1 h 36 min579 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 9 min56 subs | 37 min222 subs | 2 h 28 min886 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 14 min86 subs | 57 min341 subs | 3 h 47 min1,363 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 25 min149 subs | 1 h 39 min595 subs | 6 h 36 min2,379 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 31 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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Everything that fits the Vespera Pro →
How it frames
The M80 is 10′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 10% 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 | 13 min78 subs | 17 min105 subs | 37 min222 subs |
| 20 s | 12 min35 subs | 16 min48 subs | 35 min107 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 16 min32 subs | 35 min71 subs |
About the M80
A dense little globular between Antares and Graffias. Resolves poorly, but the ball itself is bright.
NGC 6093 · Globular cluster in Scorpius · magnitude 7.3 · 10′ · best in May, Jun, Jul. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Globular clusters are point sources packed tight, so they come quickly: the core resolves into stars within a handful of minutes on any smart scope. More time deepens the halo and pulls in the faint outer members. Use short subs so the core does not saturate into a white blob, and no filter.
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 M80 from a Vespera Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M80 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 11 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 12 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 11 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 13 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 16 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 11 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the DwarfLab Draco: 15 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 36 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 11 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 10 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 23 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 9 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 41 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the Celestron Origin: 5 min from Bortle 6
- M80 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 5 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M80 · All targets for the Vespera Pro