Reddit reviews Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager
We found 4 Reddit comments about Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Complete CCD solar system imager produces high-quality planetary imagesView and capture live video on your computer screenSoftware automatically filters out fuzzy frames for sharper imageEasy to install and useManually control gain, contrast, exposure time, and much more from your PC
For imaging? I have serious doubts. Firstly, I doubt that that mount will prove reliable or extensible enough. A one-armed alt/az mount just isn't going to be stable. And the 640x480 color CCD is again more suited for planetary imaging.
A solid German equatorial mount - the CGEM is a comparatively inexpensive 'serious' example - and a proper camera are the way to go. I'd consider the Celestron C-6 as an inexpensive starting point.
And then, naturally, you'll need a camera. Even the Orion starshoot is $1300 before you invest in filters. I'd start with a commercial DSLR just to begin. In fact, I did.
And then some sort of tracking/guide scope setup. I use an Orion short-tube refractor with a Celestron NexImage - essentially just a webcam - and Metaguide.
*You know what, I take it back. The price difference isn't that great, and the results are well worth it - if you can at all, skip the DSLR and go straight to a 'real' camera.
If I still had the webcam, I'd show you a picture. It's so laughably simple!
Take any old cheapo webcam, and remove the lens. Really, that's the only important thing that you have to do - you want the CMOS (or CCD on newer ones) chip exposed, and not going through two lenses.
The end of a water bottle (or a film canister, which was mentioned above) fits perfectly into the aperture of a telescope, just like any old lens would. The beauty (?) of a water bottle is that you can just cut it in a way that will allow you to glue it to the webcam, it's easy. Got some testors model glue? Or, heck, even some of that crappy white school glue - it'll work just fine.
Nowadays, I use the NexImage, but it's pretty costly. And, y'know, I always thought the old CMOS webcam had better colour quality anyways!
Or you can buy one of the many astronomical imaging cameras out there already designed to fit in a standard 1.25 eyepiece such as the Celestron or Orion...and it's cheaper!
http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-NexImage-Solar-System-Imager/dp/B0002X5Q72/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1324316536&sr=8-3
Wow, can't thank you enough for the awesome response. I think my course of action at this point will be to get a CCD webcam, read a lot more, and just experiment a lot. Everything you said makes perfect sense, but I think it'll be a lot more obvious to me when I actually take some pictures and make some mistakes.
One final question. It seems most of the popular cheap webcams which are popular for astrophotography are discontinued. This unit from Celestron seems to use the same (or very similar) sensor as the Phillips Toucam.
http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-NexImage-Solar-System-Imager/dp/B0002X5Q72
I'll probably just pick one of those up so I don't have to track down a discontinued item. Would I be shooting myself in the foot for any reason for buying that?