Quote:
Originally Posted by OzStarGazer
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I suspect it's fine for basic lunar and planetary work etc for a beginner. Remember, the Celestron NexImage is "just a webcam" with no special hardware modifications (other than taking off the standard webcam lens), and so is this. If the supplied software doesn't work, you can probably drive it through any standard webcam software such as the venerable AmCap etc, so you should be able to play with exposure / frame rate / etc, and then process through RegiStax. Shooting at 16 fps is probably fine for its intended use, anyway, because you can grab a few hundred frames for stacking in a few seconds of video capture.
The listing talks about imaging galaxies, but I'd take that claim with a grain of salt. (Probably a handful of salt, actually!)
The only thing I couldn't work out is exactly how it attaches to the telescope - there's no close-up of how it fits onto the focuser or onto an eyepiece.
It says it attaches "to any telescope" - presumably including terrestrial spotting scopes which don't have removable eyepieces. I think that unlike the NexImage (which shoots with the sensor at prime focus), this one could be shooting afocal through a standard telescope eyepiece, rather than fitting straight into the focuser, because the three adapters provided are stated to be:
Size of Ocular Tube: 17mm, 25mm and 30mm (using included adapters)
There's apparently no 1 1/4" or 2" adapter which would be needed to insert into the focuser (unless these are poor metric conversions?), so I'm wondering whether maybe these "ocular tubes" clamp onto your standard oculars (eyepieces)? That is, I suspect this device is a lot like shooting through the eyepiece with a webcam or your phone camera, but probably a lot easier to get set up for well-aligned shots and video.
EDIT: On browsing around eBay, I see there are dozens of these "Digital Eyepieces", including some which
DO have standard 1 1/4" focuser tubes; e.g.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-0MP-DIG...44c677f&_uhb=1
I'm still not sure about the one which OzStarGazer linked to, though.