hi this is Graham from Jenham's Astro in
this video I'll be reviewing the
celestron NexYZ 3-axis
universal smartphone adapter this
adapter allows you to position and hold
a smartphone over the eyepiece of a
telescope a spotting scope or microscope
so you can take photos without the need
for more sophisticated equipment like a
digital SLR in the UK it costs around 50
pounds and about $60 in the US and one
of the most popular videos on my channel
has been of another smartphone adapter
which retails for about a third of the
price of this one so in this video we'll
see if the celestron product is worth
the higher price so that what's in the
box well you get the adapter itself it
is you get a sheet of multi-lingual
instructions which have some useful
pictures to help you to set the adapter
and then finally you get a couple of
cuffs which really are plastic rings
that you can put around small eyepieces
maybe with a microscope and they
allowing you just to Pat out any
distance between that eyepiece and the
mechanism that clamps the adapter it's
packaged inside a nice colorful box it's
lined in foam and that's all really
quite nice packaging the adapter itself
well it weighs 285 grams so this
compares with 165 for the other adapter
that I reviewed so the the next wiser is
heavier but really it's not excessively
heavy the construction is mainly of
plastic although there are some small
metal bolts and screws and I'd say it
feels solid enough to do the job
adapters like this they're always gonna
look a little bit unwieldy a little bit
a little bit spiders because you you're
trying to connect different pieces of
equipment together but you get used to
it after a while another little touch
the adapter has got the classic orange and black
coloring and I think it
looks quite smart to the eye. okay so
how do you attach the adapter to an
eyepiece in a scope well is you've got a
couple of options you can either attach
the put the eyepiece in to this scope
first and then put the adapter onto it
or you can put the adapter onto the
eyepiece first and then place them both
into the telescope so that's your choice
I think generally I've put the eyepiece
into the telescope first but it's just a
personal preference to see what works
for you but basically the attachment of
the adapter to an eyepiece is a
two-stage process so firstly you have a
clamp here which as you can see is a
spring-loaded mechanism so it fits very
light pieces with outside diameters and
some damages in the range of 30 to 60
millimeters that should be fine for most
normal 1.25 and indeed most two-inch
eyepieces so as I mentioned it is about
2 is supplied with a couple of these
which are expanding plastic cuffs and
those could be used to fit across a
smaller diameter eyepiece if you have
one I haven't used those so after what
you basically do then after you've
opened up the jaws of the clamp
you put those around the eyepiece like
this and then you can see I hope that
there is a mechanism here to screw down
the clamp onto the eyepiece maybe this
way around is a little bit easier to see
so that allows you to attach the two
together quite firmly and then if you
want to reverse the process well you
undo the locking screw here I take the
nut from that and then you open the
clamp and remove the eyepiece and then
you're free to see change to another
line piece whatever you want to do so
process continues I say it slightly more
fiddly them and the other adapter of you
but you get used to it so moving on to
attaching the phone again you can you
can do all this in in the order that
suits you so basically you're the
adapter is fitted with a sliding clamp
so it is spring-loaded hopefully you can
see that and it's designed to fit a
range of phone and phablet sizes and if
we put the camera into the adapter I'd
say it's hold on the three sides and the
question is how well does it grip well I
mean you're probably holding a phone
here that could cost you know five
hundred pounds or more quite easily you
don't want to test the insurance cover
by dropping it so I'd say shaking the
adapter with the camera installed well
there you go it's a pretty subjective
test but I say it holds it on pretty
securely but obviously I offer no
guarantees so how do you were just the
adapter to get the image that you want
well the main feature of the adapters
into that by the name not only does
the NexYZ fit with the existing Celestron
product line in terms of being similar
name to the next are products for the X
Y Z refers to the ability to adjust
the positioning of the camera with
respect to the eyepiece in three axes so
you're the x y&z axes if you've used
adapter the only really allows an
adjustment in the X and the y-axis acts
to say left and right up and down you'll
know that whilst you can centralize the
image in the field of the smartphone and
camera you can't adjust it easily to get
the right size of image and the problem
is you want to either increase or
decrease the separation between the
camera lens and the eyepiece lens and if
you haven't got a built-in adjustment
for that it is tempting to try and move
the phone so that it's perhaps isn't so
securely held by the clamping on that
particular adapter and that's where
trouble can start and ultimately you can
have a situation where the phone falls
out of the adapter which obviously isn't
good so with the NexYZ
full adjustment is promised so if we
have a closer look at the adjustment
mechanism on turning the adapter over
and hopefully you can see that there are
three adjustment knots as one here
there's one here and there's a smaller
one here now adjusting each one in turn
this knob here is moving the phone in X
so it's moving it left to right this one
here is moving it up and down so you see
it's going up in in the y axis and then
this smaller one here is moving so
looking from the side is moving the
camera here now in the z-axis relative
to the position that the eyepiece will
be remember that the eyepiece is
normally clamped inside in the jaws like
this so each adjustment has got an
adjustment knob that is a different a
different shape which is a nice feature
really if you're going to use the
adapter at night because you can in
theory that's not that easy between the
X and Y but you can you can
tell which of the adjustments that
you're holding by the shape that's quite
nice the mechanisms I said that they're
lightweight but they're they're they're
very tidally installed and they seem to
be certainly good enough for the purpose
so I'd say yeah mechanisms quite clever
some nice features ok so let's try and
see this working so initially I've got
the telescope looking out into my garden
bird table and I've set up the eyepiece
and telescope focused on the target so
that it's it's in the center of the
field and then we're going to put the
put the phone onto the adapter and then
we're going to clamp it on to the
eyepiece
like so nice and tight now a moment
can't see any image so I'm just going to
play around with the with the adjustment
knob so in the x-axis so you can see
that it scans the image across there we
go they can start to see the image there
you can adjust it up and down with the Y
and then finally see with the Z just
bringing it closer to the eyepiece
that's touching there just to show you
the full range of travel and then we go
right the way out that it's as far out
as we can go you can note some some
purple reflection here the light off the
of the coating on the eyepiece and then
probably probably that's about the sweet
spot there so now be ideal for a still
photo like so or if you go to video then
the field of views difference they're
all automatically we've we've lost some
of that tunneling effect and we're
filling most of the field of view so
yeah it's relatively simple to use it
takes a little bit practice but the
adjustment in x y&z is it's pretty easy
to use now for in my opinion please can
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button ok so now is the Celestron
NexYZ good or bad well I'd say it's
mostly good things I like the three axis
adjustment is well thought out and it's
quite intuitive to use the camera is
held very securely and it's held on
three sides so that's a strong point
compared to some other smartphone
adapters on the market and whilst
initially the combination of the clamp
and the screw mechanism might seem a
little bit awkward in practice it works
quite well
okay so that's all good I have two
quibbles probably quite small as I
said the clamping generally works very
well but it can slip around eyepieces if
if they're not contoured or rubberized
so for example I used some Halloween
eyepieces they're my favourites and
they're fantastic they are smooth along
the sides and they are glorious in every
way but this adapter can slip
unless you've tightened it up so there's
a solution to that just make sure it is
tight and that's in general good in all
that the whole process works works
better when you're using a smartphone
with with your telescope secondly the
cost maybe is a little bit high if you
shop around you can save a few pennies
and maybe I recommend that you do that
now my other observations are generic
really they applied to many adapters
after all what we're trying to do here
is we're trying to mate a camera that's
on the corner at the rectangular phone
with a circular cone of light and we're
trying to do that with a piece of kit it
isn't heavy that isn't hugely expensive
like a lot of astro kit this isn't
an easy task to achieve I
think Celestron have done it very well but I
think you must remember that using
adapters like this it's always gonna
have a somewhat fiddly aspect to it
it's not like everything is clamped on tight
like you've got with a digital SLR but
as long as you accept that you've got to
take a little bit of care setting
everything up timing things down maybe
not sort of nudging the arrangement too
much when you're trying to take it take
a nice photo then that's just that goes
with the territory really so for still
images often you'll have to use the zoom
feature in order to fill the frame of
the camera alternatively you can crop
the final image that you have if you
shoot video generally that improves that
because it has a smaller field of view
okay then reflections if you're using
the camera during daylight or if you're
using it for astro targets where
maybe you've got a neighbour's light
nearby you can get reflections off the
coating of the eyepiece and they can
appear in the photo you're
trying to take now this can be quite a
problem during day time now depending on
the eyepiece you're using you can
possibly shade
light with eyepiece if it has a rubber cup
or maybe you can hold your hand over
where the source of light to need to
stop it from reflecting off the eyepiece
but you've got to be aware of that
really that because there is naturally a
separation of the camera from from the
telescope that is there is an
opportunity for some light to get in and
influence your picture but really
they're generic points that can
really apply to any adapter you should
be aware of them when you're looking to
use a smartphone with it with a
telescope so would I recommend this
Celestron NexYZ? Yes I would for me it is
worth the price. The Z axis adjustment
really that's the clincher it removes
the temptations you can cause expensive
phone to slip from a lesser adapter add
to this the impression of Celestron have
paid quite a lot attention to detail for
example in the distinction of the
different adjustment knobs and in the
way that the camera is held onto the
adapter some nice design features so for
me it's definitely worth giving it a try
I hope this review has been useful once
again please subscribe to my channel and
thanks very much for watching