How long to image the NGC 1333 with the Vaonis Vespera II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 6 h 04 min (2,185 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the NGC 1333. A quick look takes 1 h 31 min; a showpiece 24 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 h 16 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 7% 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 | 28 min171 subs | 1 h 53 min681 subs | 7 h 33 min2,721 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 30 min182 subs | 2 h 01 min727 subs | 8 h 04 min2,906 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 34 min204 subs | 2 h 16 min814 subs | 9 h 03 min3,256 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 43 min257 subs | 2 h 51 min1,026 subs | 11 h4,103 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 57 min341 subs | 3 h 47 min1,362 subs | 15 h5,445 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 31 min547 subs | 6 h 04 min2,185 subs | 24 h8,739 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 36 min939 subs | 10 h3,754 subs | 42 h15,014 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 4 h 18 min1,548 subs | 17 h6,190 subs | 69 h24,758 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 7 h 54 min2,847 subs | 32 h11,385 subs | 130+ h45,538 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 7 h 53 min of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 3 h 57 min each. The Vespera II’s battery is rated at about 4 h, less near freezing, so each night needs an external power bank. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time, and 30% off the battery for a November night.)
- USB-C PD power bank 20000mAh 30WOnly four hours inside; Vaonis specifies a 30 W PD source. C-to-C cable not included.
- Vaonis Vespera hygrometer sensorTriggers the built-in demister automatically; the correct dew accessory for the II.
- 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.
Affiliate links: the retailer pays us a small commission and you pay the same price. These are search links to the named product, not endorsements of a particular listing; check the listing matches your model.
Everything that fits the Vespera II →
How it frames
The NGC 1333 is 6′ × 3′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 7% 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 | 2 h 16 min814 subs | 3 h 47 min1,362 subs | 10 h3,754 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 54 min343 subs | 3 h 25 min617 subs | 10 h1,813 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 47 min215 subs | 3 h 18 min397 subs | 9 h 57 min1,195 subs |
About the NGC 1333
A blue reflection nebula amid a maze of dark dust and red Herbig-Haro jets. Broadband, dark sky, long stack.
Perseus Molecular Cloud · Reflection nebula in Perseus · magnitude 9.5 · 6′ × 3′ · best in Oct, Nov, Dec. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Reflection nebulae are starlight scattered by dust, so they are broadband and blue. A dual-band filter removes almost all of it; do not use one. These are among the faintest structures a smart scope can attempt and the figures run long. A dark sky matters more here than for any other type, and the Moon must be down.
About the Vaonis Vespera II
A 50 mm quadruplet on an 8 MP sensor with Vaonis’s mosaic mode for wide fields. Same optics class as the Seestar S50, four times the pixels.
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; the app detects which is fitted.
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 NGC 1333 from a Vespera II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- NGC 1333 with the ZWO Seestar S50: 6 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 6 h 38 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the ZWO Seestar S30: 6 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 7 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 8 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 6 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the DwarfLab Draco: 4 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 21 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 14 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 5 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 13 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 5 h 33 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Unistellar Odyssey: 26 h from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Celestron Origin: 1 h 36 min from Bortle 6
- NGC 1333 with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 2 h 12 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the NGC 1333 · All targets for the Vespera II