How long to image the NGC 1333 with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2 needs about 13 h (4,668 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the NGC 1333. A quick look takes 3 h 14 min; a showpiece 52 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 5 h 17 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 6% 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 | 1 h 08 min408 subs | 4 h 32 min1,631 subs | 18 h6,522 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 1 h 12 min431 subs | 4 h 47 min1,724 subs | 19 h6,895 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 1 h 19 min476 subs | 5 h 17 min1,901 subs | 21 h7,601 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 1 h 37 min582 subs | 6 h 28 min2,328 subs | 26 h9,312 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 2 h 05 min752 subs | 8 h 21 min3,006 subs | 33 h12,022 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 3 h 14 min1,167 subs | 13 h4,668 subs | 52 h18,672 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 5 h 26 min1,959 subs | 22 h7,836 subs | 87 h31,344 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 8 h 51 min3,189 subs | 35 h12,755 subs | 140+ h51,019 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 16 h5,812 subs | 65 h23,245 subs | 260+ h92,979 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 17 h of run time. That is more than one night: over 3 nights, about 5 h 37 min each. The Vespera Pro 2’s battery (rated about 11 h) should cover each night; 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 November 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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Everything that fits the Vespera Pro 2 →
How it frames
The NGC 1333 is 6′ × 3′ across. The Vespera Pro 2 frames 1.65° × 1.65° at 1.68″ per pixel, so it fills 6% 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 | 5 h 17 min1,901 subs | 8 h 21 min3,006 subs | 22 h7,836 subs |
| 20 s | 4 h 21 min783 subs | 7 h 25 min1,336 subs | 21 h3,751 subs |
| 30 s | 4 h 02 min485 subs | 7 h 07 min854 subs | 21 h2,464 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 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 NGC 1333 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
- 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 II: 6 h 04 min 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 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 Pro 2