Celestron NexImage 5 Solar System Imager 5MP

[M4lcs67]

Hi all,

I am shortly getting a new scope and to begin with I was going to use it purely for observing, but I do like the thought of doing some imaging at some point and the above camera is about to be/has already been released.

On the face of it, it does seem a very good piece of kit and is more in my price bracket than an Atik or something like it.

Does anyone else have any opinions as to if it is any good or not??????

[Skybrowser]

Haven't seen one yet, but heard they are going to be about £250. That's more than twice as much as the old model, which is to all intents and purposes is an SPC 900 in a posh suit. That said, if it's the much higher spec they say, Celestron may have a winner on their hands as the mid-price area for cameras seems a bit thin on the ground just now. Prices of decent kit seem to jump by £300 or £400 with nothing in between. Someone will take the plunge and have a look I'm sure.

[M4lcs67]

Cheers Steve. Yeah, I purely found out about them by accident, but read that they were going out for £250 and also I like the fact that they are 5mp as well, so that should give you slightly better resolition. Since the demise of the Phillips webcams there seems to be a bit of a shortage of reasonable webcams out there at affordable prices. It seems to be all Atiks and Starlight Xpress which are well out of my price range (or maybe I am talking rubbish????). I have no experience of them (just going on what I read). There is also the Microsoft HD conversion, but that does seem to be a bit involved. Shame there isn't a place that can do the conversion for you. I have been on the Billetparts website and they have a youtube video of the conversion, but I don't think I am comfortable doing it. Ideally I would rather pay for someone to do it. That is why I find it strange that someone somewhere hasn't thought of doing a conversion and selling it. Some people also talk of the xbox webcam and say that is ok. I certainly would pay for the new Celestron one once it has been out for a while and read some reviews of it in a working enviroment. So far all I have read is the Celestron promotional blurb and all they are going to do is big it up. I would rather get some impartial info of it first. Certainly at £250 they have a big space and looking at the proposed spec they could do the buisiness.

[Cornelius Varley]

I think you will find that you need to shoot at 640x480 (binning) to get a reasonable frame rate, at full resolution the camera is only capable of about 6fps and 52 at 640x480. Another problem would be the arcsec/pixel ratio at full resolution. The pixel size is 2.2 micron, which for the size of telescope generally used would not give at better image than using a D*K 21.

Peter

[M4lcs67]

Thanks alot Peter. I think I need to get to grips with the new scope in the first instance then go step-by-step with the photography side of things. I see what other people have done and I think I want a piece of that, but I know I need to learn first. I want instant gratification (like everyone else), but know logically that it will never happen. I am joining Hebden Bridge Astro Society in September and hopefully there will be some people who are experienced astro imagers that I can get some information from and pick their brains as to how to do certain things. I could get all the info I could ever need off SGL, but sometimes there is no substitute for someone physically showing you how to do something.