How long to image the Cigar Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2 needs about 1 h 13 min (441 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Cigar Galaxy. A quick look takes 18 min; a showpiece 4 h 54 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 34 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 | 8 min46 subs | 30 min181 subs | 2 h 01 min724 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 8 min48 subs | 31 min189 subs | 2 h 06 min756 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 8 min51 subs | 34 min204 subs | 2 h 16 min816 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 10 min61 subs | 40 min241 subs | 2 h 40 min963 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 12 min75 subs | 50 min299 subs | 3 h 19 min1,194 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 18 min111 subs | 1 h 13 min441 subs | 4 h 54 min1,763 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 30 min178 subs | 1 h 59 min712 subs | 7 h 54 min2,847 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 47 min284 subs | 3 h 09 min1,133 subs | 13 h4,530 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 25 min508 subs | 5 h 38 min2,030 subs | 23 h8,120 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 35 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 February 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 Cigar Galaxy is 11′ × 4′ across. The Vespera Pro 2 frames 1.65° × 1.65° at 1.68″ 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 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 | 34 min204 subs | 50 min299 subs | 1 h 59 min712 subs |
| 20 s | 29 min88 subs | 45 min135 subs | 1 h 54 min342 subs |
| 30 s | 28 min56 subs | 43 min87 subs | 1 h 52 min225 subs |
About the Cigar Galaxy
An edge-on starburst galaxy with red hydrogen jets bursting from its core. Dual-band pulls the jets out of the glare.
M82, NGC 3034 · Galaxy in Ursa Major · magnitude 8.4 · 11′ × 4′ · best in Jan, Feb, Mar. 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 Cigar Galaxy 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
- Cigar Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 35 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 38 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 36 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 40 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 50 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 34 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 28 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 57 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 35 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 17 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 33 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 31 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 2 h 20 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 9 min from Bortle 6
- Cigar Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 13 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Cigar Galaxy · All targets for the Vespera Pro 2