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

About 2 h 04 min of total integration for a solid image, or 8 h 16 min for a showpiece. A quick look takes 31 min.

How many subs is that on the Vespera II?

At the default 10 s sub length, 744 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 282 from Bortle 3.

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

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 2 h 04 min to 1 h 18 min.

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

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera II needs about 2 h 04 min (744 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Eastern Veil Nebula. A quick look takes 31 min; a showpiece 8 h 16 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 47 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 70% of the frame’s short side.

Eastern 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	10 min60 subs	39 min237 subs	2 h 38 min947 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	11 min64 subs	42 min253 subs	2 h 48 min1,009 subs
Bortle 3Rural	12 min71 subs	47 min282 subs	3 h 08 min1,127 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	15 min89 subs	59 min353 subs	3 h 55 min1,412 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	19 min117 subs	1 h 18 min467 subs	5 h 11 min1,865 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	31 min186 subs	2 h 04 min744 subs	8 h 16 min2,975 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	53 min319 subs	3 h 32 min1,273 subs	14 h5,091 subs
Bortle 8City	1 h 27 min524 subs	5 h 49 min2,094 subs	23 h8,376 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	2 h 40 min962 subs	11 h3,846 subs	43 h15,382 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 2 h 41 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 Eastern Veil Nebula is 60′ × 8′ across. The Vespera II frames 2.55° × 1.44° at 2.39″ per pixel, so it fills 70% 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	47 min282 subs	1 h 18 min467 subs	3 h 32 min1,273 subs
20 s	40 min120 subs	1 h 10 min212 subs	3 h 25 min615 subs
30 s	37 min75 subs	1 h 08 min137 subs	3 h 22 min405 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	47 min282 subs	1 h 18 min467 subs	3 h 32 min1,273 subs
dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on	55 min329 subs	1 h 04 min386 subs	1 h 45 min633 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 Eastern Veil Nebula

The brighter, more detailed arc of the Veil. Red hydrogen and teal oxygen filaments interleave; dual-band captures both.

NGC 6992, NGC 6995, Caldwell 33 · Supernova remnant in Cygnus · magnitude 7.0 · 60′ × 8′ · 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 Eastern 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 Eastern 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 Eastern Veil Nebula · All targets for the Vespera II