Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager
by Celestron
(Click here)
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: CelestronModel: 93712
Product features:
- Complete CCD solar system imager produces high-quality planetary images
- View and capture live video on your computer screen
- Software automatically filters out fuzzy frames for sharper image
- Easy to install and use
- Manually control gain, contrast, exposure time, and much more from your PC
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager
Customer Review: Excellent tool, but with a learning curve
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this camera from Amazon and have had a few weeks to test it out. Overall, I've found it to be an excellent tool for lunar and planetary imaging. It is easy to get started using, but to get really good images, you'll need to spend some time and you'll need to be technically adept. A few points are worth noting for newbies. All astro cameras in this price range are essentially webcams that have been modified to capture video through a telescope. This technology achieves image quality by sampling the best frames from the video and then stacking them on top of each other. This results in much more fine detail. This camera comes with two different pieces of software that must be used. The capture software gives a real-time view of the scope video, which allows you to focus, but you must be able to see the laptop screen while you adjust focus on the scope (unless you have a focus motor). The AMCap capture software also allows you to tune the brightness, contrast, frame capture rate and other important video quality metrics. Tuning the capture is a real art and takes practice. The second piece of software is the Registax post processing package. It takes the recorded video, collects and orients the moving image frames and allows you to tune the detail by bringing out features from different frames. The Registax package is relatively technical to use and is a bit intimidating. It takes several attempts to learn how to use it at a basic level, but the instruction PDF provided is very well done. Celestron's support faq site for this camera notes that the camera's internal BIOS can be modified to operate in RAW (uncompressed) avi mode, which will improve its image quality by about 2x. I downloaded the 3rd party utility to do this and also downloaded a better image capture program that allows easier processing of the RAW avi files. After spending several hours learning how CCD video imaging works and upgrading/tweaking, I was getting what I consider to be excellent planetary images with my Celestron NexStar 130 SLT Newtonian. This camera does not allow the use of eyepieces, but can be used with a Barlow. It is equivalent to a fixed 5mm eyepiece. I also bought the optional reducer (see my review of it). Because of the fixed focal character of the CCD chip, this camera is optimized for planetary and lunar imaging (I also did some filtered solar images), but it would be hard to get good deep space images with it, and a reducer is needed for the moon or sun, as they will fill the viewing area several time over. All in all, this is a great tool for the money and lets you produce really nice planetary images for a small price. However, if you're a newbie, you should plan to spend a weekend researching, tweaking and practicing before you get decent results. You can capture quick single frame stills, but they will be disappointing. The stacking and post processing is really needed to get good images.
Description of Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager
The Celestron® NexImage astronomy is a complete CCD solar system imager capable of producing high quality planetary images with greater light sensitivity and color fidelity. The software automatically filters out video frames most affected by poor atmospheric "seeing" leaving only the sharpest, clearest frames to be stacked and aligned into one high-quality image.Amazon.com Review Celestron's NexImage combines a sensitive CCD imaging device with powerful image processing software in one affordable package. Now anyone with a telescope can take pictures that are simply amazing.
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| An image of Jupiter taken with the Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager |
Amateur astronomers have been taking great pictures of the moon and planets by using modified Webcams. The favored Webcams for astro-imaging have been the hard-to-find Philips ToUCam and Vesta models because of their high-performance CCD chips. Now Celestron's Neximage puts the same CCD technology in a package that's ready to use with any telescope that accepts 1.25-inch eyepieces. The NexImage includes an anodized metal nosepiece that fits in a 1.25-inch eyepiece holder. When I installed the Windows based software, I also updated my Windows Media Player files. Then I simply plugged the NexImage into my computers' USB port, and I was ready to start taking pictures.
The NexImage CCD is sensitive enough that I can take "snapshots" of the Moon or Sunspots (always use a safe Solar filter, of course!) even without a motor-driven telescope. The real power of the NexImage package, however, comes from its included Registax software which automatically aligns and stacks hundreds of individual AVI video frames into one sharp, highly detailed picture.
I used my 8-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (similar to the Nexstar 8 GPS ) and my 2x Ultima Barlow lens to capture some beautiful pictures of Jupiter and Saturn. The sensitive Sony CCD chip in the NexImage easily shows color and detail on Jupiter that just doesn't show up when I use CMOS-based Webcams.
The fine performance of the NexImage package is limited somewhat by its included video capture software. The AmCap software doesn't give me the precise control of exposure times I'd like; I wasn't able to photograph the moon Callisto next to Jupiter, for instance, without overexposing the planet. Celestron doesn't mention the other little drawback in its ads. You'll have so much fun that your hard drive will start filling up with pictures and AVIs! --Jeff Phillips
Pros:
- Sensitive CCD chip
- Fits any telescope that takes 1.25-inch eyepieces
- Powerful image processing software
- Takes practice to get the exposure time just right
- Software is Windows only
- You'll fill up your hard drive with pictures
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