NexImage Burst USER`S MANUAL
Contents
1. lita Te j2 is kt joe CELESTRON lt gt NEXIMAGE Ul Nexlmage Burst USER S MANUAL Model 95518 95519 ENGLISH Congratulations on your purchase of the Celestron Nexlmage Burst Solar System imaging camera Your Nexlmage camera comes with the following Nexlmage Burst Camera 1 25 nose piece CD including Nexlmage iCap and RegiStax processing software USB Cable Nexlmage Burst 1 25 USB Cable Camera Nose Piece Recommended Minimum System requirements Pentium IV 2 0 GHz 1GB RAM Graphics card with 24 or 32 bit Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7 32 amp 64 bit DirectX 9 0c or higher iCAP SOFTWARE CELESTRON Nexlmage iCap and Registax processing software Quick Start 4k 2 3 5 6 Place the CD into your computer s CD ROM drive Install both the Nexlmage iCap and RegiStax software onto your computer Thread the 1 25 nose piece into the body of the Nexlmage camera See Fig 2 Slide the 1 25 nose piece of the camera into the eyepiece barrel of your telescope See Fig 3 Plug the small end of the USB cable into the port on the back of the camera Plug the other end of the USB cable into a USB port on your computer Once connected the Found New Hardware message will appear Follow the Installation Wizard until the device has been successfully installed Fig 2 Capturing I2. As with all astrophotography sharp focus is essential for high quality results Although there are many techniques and devices for focusing your telescope the human eye still remains one of the best detectors of subtle changes in detail One advantage that video imaging has over imaging with more sophisticated and expensive CCD cameras is the speed with which it can display an image Focusing Nexlmage is more like focusing an eyepiece than focusing a CCD camera Unlike long exposure cameras you don t have to wait many seconds to see the effect of a focus change using Nexlmage Focusing Tips To achieve best focus concentrate on a high contrast feature of the object you are imaging Focusing on small features such as a moon s shadow on Jupiter or Cassini s division in the rings of Saturn will guarantee best focus across the entire image Once the frames of your video are stacked the overall brightness of the composite stacked image is usually brighter than its individual component frames For this reason it is best to keep the brightness of the video image seen on the screen dimmer than you would normally desire It is important that no part of the image is overexposed to assure the maximum amount of detail in the final composite image Collimation No matter what type of telescope you image with poor collimation alignment of the optics will ruin your chances for a good image Before you begin imaging always check the collimation o
3. at http www astronomie be registax index html How Nexlmage Works Nexlmage uses a light sensitive imaging sensor to capture streaming video of any Solar System object Using the included software you can separate the video into hundreds of individual images frames and digitally stack them to significantly reduce the electric noise inherent in video chips and bring out the unseen fine detail signal hidden within your image The Nexlmage camera takes advantage of the fact that the signal to noise ratio of your stacked composite image is proportional to the square root of the number of frames combined This means that stacking as few as 16 frames will reduce the grainy noise of the composite image by 4 times While stacking as many 900 frames will improve the image by 30 times However stacking the individual frames is only half the power of the Nexlmage imager With the included software package each individual frame is analyzed for quality to filter out those frames most affected blurred by poor atmospheric seeing This form of after the fact adaptive optics leaves only the sharpest clearest frames to be stacked and aligned into a high quality image Finally powerful processing features automatically break the image up into individual unsharp mask layers that can be used to bring out tremendous detail and reveal final images that will rival those taken with astronomical CCD cameras costing thousands of dollars The Basics Focusing
4. C to begin the alignment process 5 Select the Best Frame option under the Limit Setup box D and enter a number that represents one half of the number of image frames that were captured i e if 300 frames were captured then enter 150 Press the Limit button E MRU Flat Dark Reference Tools Settings Stack Wavelet Regi Selec ley Align WS File Version 6 1 0 8 05 05 2011 21 46 Memory Used Free Total 72 1500 2048Mb Cancel Pause About CPUs 2 Fig 11 Set Alignpointag Min distance from edge Intensity_selection Default Lo es 3x3 area Lowest pixelvalue weakest Threshold strongest Number of Alignpoints 0 A Keep Alignpoints inside ScanFrame Alignment setup V Show Alignment No Align R o interest Scan Frames Alignmentbox size 125 A Max Alignpoint movement s Align by Centre of gravity 50 Estimate Rotation Limit Setup oO ms Fig 12 V Colour Show Full Image LRGB Show RO X 630 Y 433 I 0 RGB 000 Show Alignpoints Show Framelist Show Prefiter Show Aligndata Show Registrationgraph Frame 1 1 300 Closest AP 1 6 You will automatically advance to the Stack screen Accept the default settings and press the Stack button F See Fig 13 Select MRU Flat Dark Reference Align Stack Wavelet Select MRU Flat Dark Refe Align Stack Wavelet Do All Save imag G Es Stack Save image Stacking opt
5. ROI icon Draw the ROI with your mouse then click inside the red box to set the ROI The ROI can be reset any time by clicking the reset icon or going back to the Device menu TB Ne Image Smp ISC 6214996 100 ive 125 FPS 10 Press the Video File E to select the destination location for your video 11 Click on the Advanced tab You can either select the amount of time or number of frames you wish to record See Fig 9 12 Press the Record button F when ready to begin recording video See Fig 10 13 Once recording is complete press the check video button G to view the capture image Codec Video File Advanced F sd Auto Stop by Hapsed Time Stop recording after 00 00 10 Auto Stop by Frame Number Frame Filter Capture only one frame out of 5 30 Fig 9 F en Fig 10 G y T See the Help file H to learn more about the advanced features of iCap software Now that your video is captured you are ready to process it into one high resolution image Processing Images 1 Double click the RegiStax icon on your computer s desktop to start the program See Fig 11 2 Press the Select button A and select the video that was just recorded See Fig 12 3 Press the Set Alignment Points button B to have RegiStax automatically select the alignment positions over your image 4 Press the Align button
6. f your instrument and make adjustments if necessary Refer to your telescope s owner s manual for instruction in collimating the optics Finding Objects At first it can be difficult to locate individual planets due to their relative brightness To make it easier to initially find your object in the imaging window increase the brightness and gain controls on the Exposure toolbar This will allow you to better see the object as it passes through the imaging window Once you have located and centered the object you can adjust the setting until the object is at the desired brightness and contrast How long to take Streaming Video At first you may think that the more frames you record the better However there are some limitation to the duration of video and the amount of frames you can acquire Resolution and file size can both limit the length of time of your video Since the Nexlmage will combine as many sharp frames as possible to achieve one high quality image you don t want to take so many images that you start to detect the rotation of the planet especially on Jupiter which makes one complete rotation in under 10 hours Individual frames of a high resolution video can have large file sizes Hundreds of these frames can quickly consume an entire hard drive We recommend saving your video data onto a CD ROM This way you can have a library of files stored for processing without consuming hard disk space Autoguiding Your Nexlmage B
7. ions StackSize Defautt Minimized F ea WatWat Maximized R of Interest Automatic Use Nearestby Alignpoints 3 Hold Wavelet Setting Waveletscheme Normalization of frame intensity A ee ee a Dyadic 2 n ie Linear orrect geometry Stretch histogram after stacking Initial BZ Step Layer Increment De rotate images Wavelet filter e Do not stack old pixels at the H Default e Gaussian frameedge Fi Ig 13 in T Next move to the wavelet processing screen by clicking on the Wavelet tab G See Fig 14 Use Linked Wavelets Denoise Sharpen Layer Preview v 1 0 004 0 100 4 1 00 m2 o4 0 10024 1 00 3 ooo 0 100 4 1 00 4 0 00 0 100034 1 00 5 0 00 4 0 100 4 1 00 6 0 00 0 10034 1 00 8 On the wavelet page use the wavelet sliders H to enhance the image The power of RegiStax lies in the Wavelets settings This is a special filtering technique that is very good for enhancing details in images Each wavelet layer carries part of the image within it The lower numbered wavelets control the fine detail stored in the image while the larger numbered wavelets control the coarse detail Each layer can be adjusted individually to reveal the desired amount of detail for your image lt lt lt lt 9 Finally press the Save Image button to save the final image Fig 14 To explore the many other features of RegiStax and view helpful tutorials visit the RegiStax homepage
8. mages 1 Double click the Nexlmage iCap icon on your computer s desktop to start the 6 Use the Gain A and Exposure B settings to make sure that the image is not underexposed or overexposed 7 Select the video format C For the highest aul program See Fig 4 resolution select 1280x960 Fig 7 2 If the Nexlmage Burst camera is not 8 Select the frames per second FPS for Recording Stings _ s already detected select the camera and your video The FPS box D will always Redes vieo Fc aand press OK See Fig 5 Available Video Capture Devices OK display the maximum frames per second BEE EER EE 3 Select an easy target like the Moon to EE Cancel for the selected resolution setting METER begin with Center and focus your re 9 Press the Video File button E to bring up EE telescope on the specific feature you the Recording Setting box See Fig 7 amp 8 ad ee wish to image Tne Peer 4 You should be able to see light displayed in PE the Preview window of the iCap software ROI Su bframing C Neximage SMP Samples video0001 avi ouse tie le EE te If the object you are imaging does not consume image until the object is visible and sharp See Fig 6 Fig 6 most of the field of view you can select an ROI region of interest to increase the framerate and save disk space Go to the Device menu and select ROI gt gt Specify or click on the
9. ration between the equipment and receiver e Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected e Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help This product is designed and intended for use by those 14 years of age and older 2014 Celestron Celestron and Symbol are trademarks of Celestron LLC All rights reserved
10. urst can be used as an autoguiding camera when used in conjunction with an off axis guider or piggyback guidescope Nexlmage is compatible with many autoguiding software such as MetaGuide www astrogeeks com Bliss MetaGuide and a guider port interface such as GPUSB from Shoestring Astronomy www store shoestringastronomy com SPECIFICATIONS Sensitivity 5 48 V lux sec 550 nm USB Cable High speed USB 2 0 cable Back focus with 13 1mm nose piece Back focus from 10 6 mm threads CELESTRON LLC 2835 Columbia Street Torrance CA 90503 U S A Telephone 800 421 9649 www celestron com FCC Note This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions may cause harmful interference to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures e Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna e Increase the sepa
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