How long to image the M96 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 3 h 36 min (1,296 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the M96. A quick look takes 54 min; a showpiece 14 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 1 h 35 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 8% 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 | 21 min126 subs | 1 h 24 min502 subs | 5 h 34 min2,007 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 22 min132 subs | 1 h 28 min526 subs | 5 h 51 min2,104 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 24 min144 subs | 1 h 35 min573 subs | 6 h 21 min2,289 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 28 min171 subs | 1 h 54 min684 subs | 7 h 36 min2,735 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 36 min216 subs | 2 h 23 min861 subs | 9 h 34 min3,444 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 54 min324 subs | 3 h 36 min1,296 subs | 14 h5,181 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 1 h 28 min531 subs | 5 h 54 min2,123 subs | 24 h8,491 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 2 h 22 min852 subs | 9 h 28 min3,408 subs | 38 h13,631 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 4 h 16 min1,538 subs | 17 h6,149 subs | 68 h24,594 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 4 h 41 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 M96 is 7.6′ × 5.2′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 8% 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 35 min573 subs | 2 h 23 min861 subs | 5 h 54 min2,123 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 20 min241 subs | 2 h 08 min385 subs | 5 h 39 min1,016 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 15 min151 subs | 2 h 03 min247 subs | 5 h 34 min668 subs |
About the M96
The brightest of the M95/M96/M105 group, a slightly asymmetric spiral.
NGC 3368 · Galaxy in Leo · magnitude 9.2 · 7.6′ × 5.2′ · best in Feb, Mar, Apr. 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 M96 from a Vespera Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- M96 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 46 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 41 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 52 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 2 h 21 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the DwarfLab Draco: 1 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 5 h 29 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 32 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 3 h 26 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 6 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the Celestron Origin: 26 min from Bortle 6
- M96 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 35 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the M96 · All targets for the Vespera Pro