Product Description

NexImage is a complete solar system imager that is compatible with most any telescope and gives users all the light sensitivity and color fidelity that only a true CCD chip can provide

Product Details

• Brand: Celestron
• Model: 93712
• Dimensions: 2.30" h x 6.10" w x 9.50" l, .0 pounds

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

Amazon.com Review
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.

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

From the Manufacturer
Whether you currently own a telescope or are contemplating a purchase, the NexImage Solar System Imaging Kit is a must have!

NexImage is a complete CCD solar system imager capable of producing high-quality planetary images with greater light sensitivity and color fidelity than comparable CMOS imagers. Combined with the NexImage software package, NexImage can bring out tremendous detail and reveal a final image that will rival those taken with astronomical CCD cameras costing thousands of dollars more.

With the NexImage Solar System Imaging Kit, you can view and capture live video on your computer screen. 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. Easy-to-follow quick start instructions and tutorial with sample video file that will have you producing quality images your first night out. Camera control software allows you to manually change the gain, contrast, exposure time, frame rate, and color saturation using your PC.

Features

• Compatibility: 1.25-inch adapter barrel makes NexImage compatible with most any telescope.
• Versatility: 1.25-inch adapter is threaded for standard eyepiece filters and can be removed and replaced with optional focal reducer lens.
• Tutorial: Step-by-step quick start and tutorial complete with sample video file that will have you producing quality images your first night out.
• Power: NexImage uses a 1/4-inch-format color CCD chip that gives the same approximate magnification as a 5mm, 50-degree-field-of-view eyepiece.

Camera Control Software

• Full camera control: Allows you to manually change the gain, contrast, exposure time, frame rate, and color saturation.
• Preview mode: Shows a live feed of your image, making focusing as easy as focusing an eyepiece.
• Video recording: Capture streaming video of solar system object used to generate the final high-quality image.

Image Processing Software:

• Frame lists: Automatically allows you to view individual frames of your video stream.
• Quality cutoff filter: Filter out low-quality images based on individual frame quality and alignment differences.
• Wavelet filter: Separates image into a series of unsharp mask layer that can be individually controlled to bring out all the hidden detail of the image.
• Image processing control: Maximize your image with the most powerful image processing controls, like contrast, brightness, gamma curve, RGB histogram, and many more.

How the NexImage Works
NexImage is a complete solar system imager that is compatible with most any telescope and gives users all the light sensitivity and color fidelity needed for the highest quality planetary images that only a true CCD chip can provide.

NexImage utilizes a CCD imaging chip to capture streaming video of any solar system object. This video can easily be viewed as hundreds of individual images (frames) that can be digitally stacked to significantly reduce the electric noise inherent in video chips and bring out the unseen fine detail (signal) hidden with in your image.

The NexImage camera takes advantage of the fact that the signal-to-noise ratio of your stacked composite image is proportional to the square root of the number of frames combined. This means that stacking as few as 16 frames will reduce the grainy noise of the composite image by four times, while stacking as many 1600 frames will improve the image by 40 times! However, stacking the individual frames is only half the power of the NexImage imager.

With the included software package, each individual frame is analyzed for quality to filter out those frames most affected (blurred) by poor atmospheric seeing. This form of after-the-fact adaptive optics leaves only the sharpest, clearest frames to be stacked and aligned into a high-quality image.

Finally, powerful processing features automatically break the image up into individual unsharp mask layers that can be used to bring out tremendous detail and reveal final images that will rival those taken with astronomical CCD cameras costing thousands of dollars.

What's in the Box:
NexImage Camera with 1.25-inch adapter and USB cable attached, CD-ROM (containing image-capture software, image processing software, quick setup, and tutorial)

Customer Reviews

Images in an Instant!
This has got to be one of the easiest telescope imager/camera around. This imager goes in place of the eyepiece and the images instantly appear on the laptop computer screen. The included image processing software is very user friendly. The driver loads quickly in seconds. It is very exciting to see astro images of the moon and details on the lunar craters. The CCD chip is highly sensitive and gives you excellent detail even at low light conditions. The photographic magnification of this imager gives you a remarkable 150x. I have not tried it on Jupiter but I am certain that I won't be disappointed. Great purchase!

It would be great if the nose was actually 1.25"
I bought one of these to use for planets.

Setting it up to work with the laptop was very easy.

Unfortunately, the nose is only 1.21" wide, so it wobbles in the scope - making it very tough to aim.

Next time, I'll try putting a plastic sleeve on it to get it closer to 1.25" - with that, I expect it'll perform well.

The price is certainly attractive. And pictures I've seen from others with this camera are impressive. If the nose was the right size, I'd have given it 5 stars.

Update 7/21/06: I contacted Celestron about the problem with the adapter, and they sent a replacement that is 1.251 inches in diameter. It's a hair large, but should work fine. I'm unable to change my rating on an edit, but this shows they were responsive to a problem, and I give them credit for that.

On this basis, while my rating shows a 3, I feel it deserves a 5.

Excellent tool, but with a learning curve
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.