How long should I image the Wizard Nebula with the Vespera Pro from a Bortle 6 sky?

About 8 h 39 min of total integration for a solid image, or 35 h for a showpiece. A quick look takes 2 h 10 min.

How many subs is that on the Vespera Pro?

At the default 10 s sub length, 3,114 subs for a solid image from Bortle 6 and 1,263 from Bortle 3.

Does a dual-band filter help on the Wizard Nebula?

Yes. It is an emission-line object; from Bortle 6 the filter cuts the solid-image time from 8 h 39 min to 6 h 06 min.

How long to image the Wizard Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro

From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the Vaonis Vespera Pro needs about 8 h 39 min (3,114 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Wizard Nebula. A quick look takes 2 h 10 min; a showpiece 35 h. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 3 h 30 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 26% of the frame’s short side.

Wizard Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 10 s subs.
Sky	Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy	SolidClean enough to share	ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy
Bortle 1Excellent dark site	45 min271 subs	3 h1,083 subs	12 h4,329 subs
Bortle 2Typical dark site	48 min287 subs	3 h 11 min1,145 subs	13 h4,578 subs
Bortle 3Rural	53 min316 subs	3 h 30 min1,263 subs	14 h5,051 subs
Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition	1 h 05 min388 subs	4 h 18 min1,549 subs	17 h6,195 subs
Bortle 5Suburban	1 h 23 min501 subs	5 h 34 min2,002 subs	22 h8,008 subs
Bortle 6Bright suburban	2 h 10 min779 subs	8 h 39 min3,114 subs	35 h12,456 subs
Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition	3 h 38 min1,309 subs	15 h5,233 subs	58 h20,932 subs
Bortle 8City	5 h 55 min2,131 subs	24 h8,524 subs	95 h34,093 subs
Bortle 9Inner city	11 h3,885 subs	43 h15,540 subs	170+ h62,160 subs

Adjust in the calculator

Power and kit for this session

Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 11 h of run time. That is more than one night: over 2 nights, about 5 h 37 min each. The Vespera Pro’s battery (rated about 11 h) should cover each night; a power bank still keeps the phone running the app alive. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time.)

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How it frames

The Wizard Nebula is 25′ across. The Vespera Pro frames 1.62° × 1.62° at 1.65″ per pixel, so it fills 26% 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	3 h 30 min1,263 subs	5 h 34 min2,002 subs	15 h5,233 subs
20 s	2 h 52 min515 subs	4 h 55 min885 subs	14 h2,500 subs
30 s	2 h 39 min318 subs	4 h 42 min564 subs	14 h1,641 subs

With and without the dual-band filter

Solid quality, default sub length.
Filter	Bortle 3	Bortle 5	Bortle 7
No filter	3 h 30 min1,263 subs	5 h 34 min2,002 subs	15 h5,233 subs
dual-band (Dual Band filter), clip-on	4 h 32 min1,630 subs	5 h 09 min1,856 subs	7 h 54 min2,845 subs

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

About the Wizard Nebula

A cluster inside a hydrogen cloud with a wizard's silhouette. Medium brightness, good in dual-band, high in the autumn sky.

NGC 7380, Sh2-142 · Emission nebula in Cepheus · magnitude 7.2 · 25′ · best in Aug, Sep, Oct. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.

Emission nebulae glow in a few narrow lines, mostly hydrogen-alpha (deep red) and doubly ionised oxygen (teal). A dual-band filter passes those lines and blocks most skyglow, which is why it cuts the time needed from a suburban sky so dramatically. Use it. From a genuinely dark site the gain is smaller because there is less skyglow to block, and read noise becomes the limit, which is where longer subs (EQ mode, or Expert Mode on a Vespera) earn their keep.

Stars lose colour through a dual-band filter; a short broadband stack blended in fixes that if you care.

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.

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

Have an image of the Wizard Nebula from a Vespera Pro? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.

Same target, other telescopes

All telescopes for the Wizard Nebula · All targets for the Vespera Pro