How long should I image the Western Veil Nebula with the Vespera II from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 2 h 28 min of total integration for a solid image, or 9 h 52 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 37 min.

How many subs is that on the Vespera II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 889 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 333 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Western Veil Nebula?

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 2 h 28 min to 1 h 33 min.

How long to image the Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 2 h 28 min (889 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Western Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 37 min; a showpiece 9 h 52 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 55 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 81% of the frame’s short side.

Western Veil Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	12 min70 subs	46 min279 subs	3 h 06 min1,114 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	12 min75 subs	50 min298 subs	3 h 18 min1,189 subs
Bortle 3Rural	14 min84 subs	55 min333 subs	3 h 42 min1,331 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	17 min105 subs	1 h 10 min419 subs	4 h 39 min1,674 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	23 min139 subs	1 h 32 min555 subs	6 h 10 min2,218 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	37 min223 subs	2 h 28 min889 subs	9 h 52 min3,553 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	1 h 04 min382 subs	4 h 14 min1,525 subs	17 h6,097 subs
Bortle 8City	1 h 45 min628 subs	6 h 59 min2,512 subs	28 h10,046 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	3 h 12 min1,155 subs	13 h4,618 subs	51 h18,469 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 3 h 12 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.
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Vaonis Vespera hygrometer sensorTriggers the built-in demister automatically; the correct dew accessory for the II.
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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 Western Veil Nebula is 70′ × 6′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 81% 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	55 min333 subs	1 h 32 min555 subs	4 h 14 min1,525 subs
20 s	47 min141 subs	1 h 24 min252 subs	4 h 05 min737 subs
30 s	44 min88 subs	1 h 21 min162 subs	4 h 02 min485 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	55 min333 subs	1 h 32 min555 subs	4 h 14 min1,525 subs
dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on	1 h 04 min387 subs	1 h 16 min455 subs	2 h 05 min752 subs

The Vespera II has no built-in dual-band filter. Optional clip-on Vaonis filters: dual-band, light-pollution (CLS) and solar; the app detects which is fitted. On an emission target like this it is the single biggest upgrade you can make.

About the Western Veil Nebula

A thin, bright filament of supernova shock running through the star 52 Cygni. A dual-band filter transforms it; without one it drowns in suburban skyglow.

NGC 6960, Witch’s Broom, Caldwell 34 · Supernova remnant in Cygnus · magnitude 7.0 · 70′ × 6′ · best in Jul, Aug, Sep. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.

Supernova remnants are emission-line objects, strong in both hydrogen-alpha and OIII, and their filaments are thin, so pixel scale matters as much as aperture. A dual-band filter is essential from any lit sky and still helps under a dark one. These are long-integration targets; plan on several sessions and stack across nights.

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.

Where to buy the Vespera IIVaonis store Direct Amazon UK Amazon USThe Vaonis store link is a plain link; the others are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Imaged the Western Veil Nebula with your Vespera II? Did the solid figure match?Anonymous, one tap. It is how the model gets calibrated.

Have an image of the Western Veil 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

All telescopes for the Western Veil Nebula · All targets for the Vespera II