How long to image the Hamburger Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2 needs about 5 h 22 min (1,930 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Hamburger Galaxy. A quick look takes 1 h 20 min; a showpiece 21 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 2 h 11 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 15% 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 min170 subs | 1 h 53 min678 subs | 7 h 31 min2,709 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 30 min179 subs | 1 h 59 min716 subs | 7 h 57 min2,863 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 33 min198 subs | 2 h 11 min789 subs | 8 h 46 min3,154 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 40 min242 subs | 2 h 41 min965 subs | 11 h3,859 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 52 min312 subs | 3 h 27 min1,245 subs | 14 h4,977 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 1 h 20 min483 subs | 5 h 22 min1,930 subs | 21 h7,720 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 2 h 15 min810 subs | 8 h 59 min3,237 subs | 36 h12,947 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 3 h 39 min1,317 subs | 15 h5,266 subs | 59 h21,062 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 6 h 40 min2,399 subs | 27 h9,593 subs | 110+ h38,369 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 6 h 58 min of run time. The Vespera Pro 2’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 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.
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How it frames
The Hamburger Galaxy is 15′ × 3.6′ across. The Vespera Pro 2 frames 1.65° × 1.65° at 1.68″ per pixel, so it fills 15% 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 | 2 h 11 min789 subs | 3 h 27 min1,245 subs | 8 h 59 min3,237 subs |
| 20 s | 1 h 48 min326 subs | 3 h 04 min554 subs | 8 h 36 min1,550 subs |
| 30 s | 1 h 41 min202 subs | 2 h 57 min354 subs | 8 h 29 min1,018 subs |
About the Hamburger Galaxy
The third member of the Leo Triplet, an edge-on with a thick dust lane and a faint tidal tail.
NGC 3628 · Galaxy in Leo · magnitude 9.5 · 15′ × 3.6′ · 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 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 Hamburger Galaxy 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
- Hamburger Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50: 2 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 2 h 45 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30: 2 h 38 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 2 h 55 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 3 h 38 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 2 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the DwarfLab Draco: 2 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 8 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera II: 2 h 31 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 5 h 38 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 2 h 24 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 2 h 17 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the Unistellar Odyssey: 11 h from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the Celestron Origin: 40 min from Bortle 6
- Hamburger Galaxy with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 55 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Hamburger Galaxy · All targets for the Vespera Pro 2