📸 Capturing Crisp Planetary Images: Celestron NexImage 10MP Solar System Imager (93708) Review

Well. 2 stars might be a bit much but I gave it because it boots on every Windows platform since Vista. This is a big plus. I've tried booting all operating systems from Vista to Win 10 with no problems. But after spending 12 hours with it I have to say that this is one of the worst cameras I have ever worked with. Well to be fair I have to think the camera I received was defective. As it should be, Celestron would never release anything that bad. No matter what I tried, the picture was very…

NexImage 5MP is your ticket to the celestial theater if you want to share the glorious solar system with others. Now, it seems, for the first time, novice and professional astronomers can afford this package. The NexImage 5MP has a resolution of 5 megapixels and comes with a disc that allows you to set up your laptop or computer to capture starry sky images using iCap image editing software and RegiStax 6 stacking software. Stack them later with RegiStax 6 and choose the best of thousands of…

I only spent one night on this item but I am happy with the first results. I'm posting a few tips to make life easier for new Windows 10 users.Installation/Install:1. Go to Celestron website, click Support -> Manuals & Software -> Drivers & Software2. Download/install the updated USB camera driver (I believe this is the USB 2.0 camera driver update with image source). Plug in the camera, launch iCap and if everything is set up correctly, the program will detect the device (if you don't…

Purchase of a NexImage 5 MP for solar system imaging with a Celestron 8 SCT on an AVX mount. You can't ignore the hardware you connect your imager to when evaluating its performance. The laptop I'm using is a 2.16MHz laptop equipped with USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. The imager comes with a 1.25" head with screw, dust cap with screw and durable USB cable. Also included is iCap data acquisition software and free Registax 6 software for converting video to still images. You don't have to use the…

UPDATE March 31: I removed a few sprockets because after a year of careful use the glass had cracked out of position. This allowed dust and dirt to get in and ruin future shots, even after the glass was glued in place. I never dropped or bumped the camera and it was always fumbling around in the soft case. I took it apart a second time to clean the glass and sensor and saw that the sensor now had a scratch from loose glass. When I cleaned the sensor of dust with special cleaners, it was…

The Celestron NexImage 5 camera is a modified webcam specifically designed for capturing objects in the solar system. That means sun, moon and larger/nearer planets. In fact, it's not designed to capture very faint deep-sky objects. So, since the hardware can meet that requirement, it does it quite well. Whatever effort Celestron put into developing this product, it was all about the hardware. The software on the CD that came with the camera works but is out of date. It hasn't been updated in…