How long to image the Sculptor Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 29 min (175 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Sculptor Galaxy. A quick look takes 7 min; a showpiece 1 h 57 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 12 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 31% 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 | 3 min17 subs | 11 min66 subs | 43 min261 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 3 min18 subs | 11 min69 subs | 46 min274 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 3 min19 subs | 12 min75 subs | 50 min300 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 4 min23 subs | 15 min91 subs | 1 h362 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 5 min29 subs | 19 min115 subs | 1 h 17 min460 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 7 min44 subs | 29 min175 subs | 1 h 57 min700 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 12 min73 subs | 48 min290 subs | 3 h 13 min1,159 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 19 min117 subs | 1 h 18 min468 subs | 5 h 12 min1,870 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 35 min212 subs | 2 h 21 min847 subs | 9 h 25 min3,388 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 38 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.)
- 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.
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Everything that fits the Vespera II →
How it frames
The Sculptor Galaxy is 27′ × 7′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 31% 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 | 12 min75 subs | 19 min115 subs | 48 min290 subs |
| 20 s | 11 min33 subs | 18 min53 subs | 47 min141 subs |
| 30 s | 15 min30 subs | 17 min35 subs | 46 min93 subs |
About the Sculptor Galaxy
A big, dusty, nearly edge-on starburst galaxy, superb from the south and low but possible from mid-northern latitudes.
NGC 253, Caldwell 65, Silver Coin · Galaxy in Sculptor · magnitude 7.2 · 27′ × 7′ · best in Sep, Oct, Nov. 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 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 Sculptor Galaxy from a Vespera II? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Sculptor Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 29 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 32 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 31 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 34 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 29 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 24 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 1 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 1 h 05 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 28 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 02 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 26 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 1 h 59 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 8 min from Bortle 6
- Sculptor Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 11 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Sculptor Galaxy · All targets for the Vespera II