How long to image the Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 1 h 07 min (402 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Running Man Nebula. A quick look takes 17 min; a showpiece 4 h 28 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 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 23% 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 | 6 min34 subs | 23 min136 subs | 1 h 30 min542 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 6 min36 subs | 24 min144 subs | 1 h 36 min574 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 7 min40 subs | 26 min159 subs | 1 h 46 min636 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 8 min50 subs | 33 min197 subs | 2 h 11 min786 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 11 min64 subs | 43 min256 subs | 2 h 51 min1,024 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 17 min101 subs | 1 h 07 min402 subs | 4 h 28 min1,606 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 28 min170 subs | 1 h 53 min680 subs | 7 h 33 min2,717 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 46 min278 subs | 3 h 05 min1,111 subs | 12 h4,441 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 25 min508 subs | 5 h 38 min2,030 subs | 23 h8,117 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 27 min of run time. The Vespera II’s battery (rated about 4 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, and 30% off the battery for a December 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.
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Everything that fits the Vespera II →
How it frames
The Running Man Nebula is 20′ × 10′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 23% 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 | 26 min159 subs | 43 min256 subs | 1 h 53 min680 subs |
| 20 s | 23 min69 subs | 39 min117 subs | 1 h 49 min329 subs |
| 30 s | 21 min43 subs | 38 min76 subs | 1 h 48 min217 subs |
About the Running Man Nebula
The blue reflection nebula just north of M42 with a dark figure running through it. Broadband only; it comes free in a long Orion stack.
NGC 1977, Sh2-279 · Reflection nebula in Orion · magnitude 7.0 · 20′ × 10′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. 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 Running Man Nebula from a Vespera II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30: 1 h 10 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 18 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 55 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 18 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 24 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Running Man Nebula · All targets for the Vespera II