How long to image the Centaurus A with the Vaonis Vespera Pro
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 1 h 32 min (550 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Centaurus A. A quick look takes 23 min; a showpiece 6 h 06 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 41 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 27% 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 | 9 min55 subs | 36 min217 subs | 2 h 24 min866 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 9 min57 subs | 38 min227 subs | 2 h 31 min907 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 10 min62 subs | 41 min247 subs | 2 h 44 min985 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 12 min74 subs | 49 min293 subs | 3 h 15 min1,172 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 15 min92 subs | 1 h 01 min368 subs | 4 h 05 min1,470 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 23 min138 subs | 1 h 32 min550 subs | 6 h 06 min2,199 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 37 min225 subs | 2 h 30 min898 subs | 9 h 58 min3,589 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 1 h360 subs | 3 h 59 min1,437 subs | 16 h5,747 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 48 min647 subs | 7 h 11 min2,588 subs | 29 h10,349 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 59 min of run time. The Vespera Pro’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 30WExtends the 11 h battery; 30 W PD per Vaonis.
- 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 Centaurus A is 26′ × 20′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 27% 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 | 41 min247 subs | 1 h 01 min368 subs | 2 h 30 min898 subs |
| 20 s | 35 min104 subs | 55 min165 subs | 2 h 23 min430 subs |
| 30 s | 33 min66 subs | 53 min106 subs | 2 h 21 min283 subs |
About the Centaurus A
A giant elliptical with a thick dust band across it, the brightest radio galaxy in the sky. A southern-hemisphere showpiece.
NGC 5128, Caldwell 77 · Galaxy in Centaurus · magnitude 6.8 · 26′ × 20′ · best in Mar, Apr, May. Low or below the horizon from northern Europe; best from the southern US southwards.
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
The square-sensor Vespera with 2 µm pixels. Higher resolution than the II, and correspondingly slower per pixel: expect around double the time for the same per-pixel SNR. Run-out in 2026 and replaced by the Vespera Pro 2.
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.
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 Centaurus A from a Vespera Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Centaurus A with the ZWO Seestar S50: 41 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 45 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the ZWO Seestar S30: 43 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 48 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 41 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the DwarfLab Draco: 34 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 2 h 19 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the Vaonis Vespera II: 41 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 39 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 1 h 27 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 37 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the Unistellar Odyssey: 2 h 49 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the Celestron Origin: 11 min from Bortle 6
- Centaurus A with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 15 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Centaurus A · All targets for the Vespera Pro