How long to image the M86 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 3 h 15 min (1,171 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M86. A quick look takes 49 min; a showpiece 13 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 26 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 9% 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 | 19 min113 subs | 1 h 15 min451 subs | 5 h1,802 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 20 min119 subs | 1 h 19 min473 subs | 5 h 15 min1,891 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 21 min129 subs | 1 h 26 min515 subs | 5 h 43 min2,058 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 26 min154 subs | 1 h 43 min616 subs | 6 h 51 min2,464 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 32 min195 subs | 2 h 09 min777 subs | 8 h 38 min3,106 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 49 min293 subs | 3 h 15 min1,171 subs | 13 h4,682 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 1 h 20 min481 subs | 5 h 20 min1,922 subs | 21 h7,686 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 2 h 09 min772 subs | 8 h 35 min3,088 subs | 34 h12,349 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 3 h 52 min1,394 subs | 15 h5,574 subs | 62 h22,294 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 4 h 14 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 M86 is 9′ × 6′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 9% 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 | 1 h 26 min515 subs | 2 h 09 min777 subs | 5 h 20 min1,922 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 12 min216 subs | 1 h 56 min347 subs | 5 h 06 min920 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 07 min135 subs | 1 h 51 min223 subs | 5 h 02 min604 subs |
About the M86
M84's companion in Markarian's Chain, a large elliptical falling into the Virgo cluster.
NGC 4406 · Galaxy in Virgo · magnitude 8.9 · 9′ × 6′ · 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 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 M86 from a Vespera Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M86 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 35 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 2 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 12 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 4 h 57 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 3 h 06 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h 18 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 6 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the Celestron Origin: 23 min from Bortle 6
- M86 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 32 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M86 · All targets for the Vespera Pro