As smart mobile phones imaging capabilities improve so it is no surprise that they are now being used to image the night sky.
Holding the smartphone up against an eyepiece can be tricky, with mixed results.
It requires a very steady hand so telescope adapters such as Celestron’s NexYZ universal adapter can really make a difference in imaging with a telescope, spotting scope or even with one half of a binocular.
The sturdy build quality is apparent and the easy way of quickly inserting or taking out the smart phone from the NexYZ is a great feature.
This allows for anyone nearby to capture an image through a telescope by easily swapping smartphones, great for sharing the experience with friends and family or at stargazing events with the public.
But the real ingenuity of the NexYZ is the ability to line the smartphone up with the telescope eyepiece in three axes, X, Y and Z.
This gives full control on ensuring the smartphone camera is aligned with the optical axis of the telescope allowing the camera to capture the target in question.
In our tests we used it with a Stargate 500 GoTo Dobsonian, an Equinox 80 ED refractor and our 100mm spotting scope.
With the Stargate and Equinox telescopes we used several eyepieces from 1.25 inch to 2 inch fit barrels.
TheNexYZ fitted several of our 2 inch eyepieces but we did note that our wider 2 inch eyepieces such as the standard 28mm supplied with the StarGate 500 or the Ethos 21mm 100 degree eyepiece, don’t fit.
So, if your main eyepieces are the larger variants then check with the retailer if it will work with them.
Using the NexYZ we captured a wide range of targets from the ‘easy’ moon to several deep sky objects using the NightCap app and were impressed with what we could capture using the NexYZ and our iPhone 7 smartphone and can highly recommend it.
Vital stats
- Price: £49.00
- Suitable for: Wide range of mobile phones inc Samsung, Google, and Apple
- Adjustment: 3 axis, X, Y & Z
- Supplier: Celestron UK
- www.celestron.co.uk
