How long should I image the Southern Pinwheel with the Vespera 3 from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 45 min of total integration for a solid image, or 2 h 59 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 11 min.

How many subs is that on the Vespera 3?

At the default 10 s sub length, 268 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 111 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Southern Pinwheel?

No. The Southern Pinwheel is a broadband target and a dual-band filter blocks most of its light. Shoot without a filter.

How long to image the Southern Pinwheel with the Vaonis Vespera 3

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera 3 needs about 45 min (268 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Southern Pinwheel. A quick look takes 11 min; a showpiece 2 h 59 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 18 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 15% of the frame’s short side.

Southern Pinwheel with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	4 min24 subs	16 min95 subs	1 h 03 min379 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	4 min26 subs	17 min101 subs	1 h 07 min401 subs
Bortle 3Rural	5 min28 subs	18 min111 subs	1 h 13 min441 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	6 min34 subs	22 min135 subs	1 h 30 min538 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	7 min44 subs	29 min174 subs	1 h 55 min693 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	11 min67 subs	45 min268 subs	2 h 59 min1,072 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	19 min113 subs	1 h 15 min449 subs	4 h 59 min1,795 subs
Bortle 8City	30 min183 subs	2 h 02 min730 subs	8 h 06 min2,918 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	55 min332 subs	3 h 41 min1,328 subs	15 h5,312 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 58 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.
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How it frames

The Southern Pinwheel is 13′ × 12′ across. The Vespera 3 frames 2.60° × 1.46° at 2.44″ per pixel, so it fills 15% 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	18 min111 subs	29 min174 subs	1 h 15 min449 subs
20 s	16 min48 subs	26 min80 subs	1 h 12 min218 subs
30 s	15 min31 subs	26 min52 subs	1 h 12 min144 subs

About the Southern Pinwheel

A bright barred spiral, superb from the southern hemisphere and a low-altitude struggle from northern Europe.

M83, NGC 5236 · Galaxy in Hydra · magnitude 7.6 · 13′ × 12′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. 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.

Where to buy the Vespera 3Vaonis store Direct Amazon UK Amazon USThe Vaonis store link is a plain link; the others are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Imaged the Southern Pinwheel with your Vespera 3? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Southern Pinwheel from a Vespera 3? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.

Same target, other telescopes

All telescopes for the Southern Pinwheel · All targets for the Vespera 3