Used Celestron NEXYZ 3-Axis Universal Smartphone Adapter

2024-08-04T23:01:43

Never was able to achieve a good image. Was hard to posit.

STEPHEN B.

2022-06-13T16:13:56

WOW what a Phone Holder, If you have ever had a cheesy piece of junk phone holder to hook to a pair of binoculars or telescope and were major dissapointed!!! Believe ME This Aint the one I have never never seen anything built like this TANK, It Fits 1 1/4 and 2 inch eyepiece openings and has gear driven knobs for horizontal and vertical centering to help you center your phone camera over the the telescope eyepiece with very fine adjustments...I mean it is just great and worth every dollar if you want to use your fancy phone for astro-photography! Its one awesome piece of equipment!

Max T.

2021-11-28T08:42:34

Works as advertised. Movement/correction in three axes. Structurally sound. There are challenges in getting the proper orientation, but that seems mostly due to operator (me) use.

TIMOTHY L.

2021-09-26T16:21:28

This holds my iPhone 13 Pro Max perfectly as well as my old iPhone 6+, and I'm looking forward to using it on a lot of different items, from my telescope to a microscope I'm getting in the near future. I'm amazed at the ease with which it operates and how quickly I can use it to align my phone's camera to the optics it's attached to. Definitely worth the investment!

Dennis L.

2021-08-16T11:09:33

materials seem strong and should last long. Only concern so far is the hub on the pivot clamp interferes with my S8 phone case so it limits how close I can move the phone to the lens.

CRAIG H.

2021-07-05T08:45:43

Very easily adjustable in all three dimensions to position the smartphone camera perfectly. I am using an iPhone 11 Pro Max and keep it in its case. Any of its three cameras can be positioned with this adapter.

CLEMENS S.

2021-05-30T09:07:09

Very stable product on lense

Donald M.

2021-05-24T09:23:39

The smart phone adapter worked exactly like it was described. It is well made. I added some lube to the gears so that it operated smoother.

TERRY P.

2021-03-07T14:07:07

Fits perfectly and as an added bonus you can use on binoculars also.

RICK J.

2020-11-22T09:34:34

This product is More than I expected! Can be used with binoculars and hunting Scopes as well telescopes. Excellent product!

THOMAS F.

2020-08-02T17:43:25

One of the best options out there to take photos using mobile phone cameras! It actually works really well! I dare say I’ve gotten many professional-quality photos by using this adapter!

ALBYN R.

2020-06-23T08:37:00

Great fits everything, buy it

RUSSELL M.

2020-06-07T21:14:56

Works just like advertised. My family loves the fact that we can change out the many different brands of phone without any problems!

JAMES A.

2019-08-25T17:01:41

The power button on the S10 hits the pivot post for eyepiece clamp. he lens on he S10 is toward the middle of he phone's backside. Works on he wife's iphone OK. Noth worth $ +

Tom

2019-03-31T22:25:32

Quality and accuracy. Easy and resulting. A must have. Great job Celestron!!!

David L.

2019-03-10T11:13:51

Gand kids love taking there own pictures of moon and panets. Works great.

Robert M.

2019-03-07T02:18:51

I used it with my note 3 smart phone and i tried many times, but the phone is heave so the adapter goes aligned little down and i lose my object!

Anwar H.

2019-02-03T11:17:50

It looks well designed but not as robust as I expected for a Celestron branded item. The horizontal (X axis) adjustment mechanism is kind of loose and seems to slip a tiny bit. I’ve had poor weather since I received this item and have not been able to really test it looking at the sky through my iPhone X. As mentioned above I’m concerned with the looseness of the side to side (X axis) gear to hold the eyepiece over the focal point of the eyepiece. I will try to edit this review once I have some real world time using it to take some photos.

STEVEN G.

2018-11-29T18:04:36

This is my 3rd smartphone adapter and the one which is easy to use. Others require mounting the phone in the holder and then attaching to the eyepiece-and hope that it doesn't move while at doing so. The NexYZ is first mounted on the eyepiece and THEN the phone is attached and aligned. I am a member of an astronomy association and use the NexYZ at public star parties. It is very easy to switch from one type of cell phone to another. Celestron has done a very good job with this design. The price is also lower than most adapters. I highly recommend it.

MICHAEL Y.

2018-08-29T12:24:47

I was finally able to get the shot. This is really great for when family or friends come out. Everyone phone goes right in. This will have trouble holding onto Large 2" wide field eyepieces. Would not fit on the Celestron 31mm 82° or the 17mm 92° Explore Scientific. It did work well on the rest of the 2".

William K.

2018-08-09T12:23:29

Pluses: Easy to attach and holds phone securely. The 3 axis adjustment makes getting an image a cinch After adjusting the axis to remove play, solid enough for phones. Minuses: You do need to use a small phillips screwdriver to take the play out of the 3 axis. Images taken with LG G3; 10" 5.6 scope; 26 and 12.5 mm eyepieces.

DAVID N.

2018-08-04T15:29:16

It does a pretty good job on cheap eyepieces with straight barrels, but is almost worthless on many higher-priced ones that have rounded sides, like Celestron's X-Cel and Luminos lines. The lack of contact over the full width of the clamp with those makes it wobble out of line at the slightest touch. At a recent public Mars observing event, people trying to take photos of Saturn thru a 9mm X-cel gave up and wrapped thumb and index finger around the top of the eyepiece to steady their phones and got much better results.

Josef P.

2018-07-02T11:58:14

I do a lot of public outreach astronomy and will take photos through my scope for dozens of folks during an evening. I was hoping this would make things faster by allowing me to quickly switch out phones with minor 3-axis adjustment for each phone. It did not quite work out that way. For the most part, that was not the adapter's fault but due to differences between cell phones. The NEXYZ is best used on a non-tapered, rigid barrel eyepiece. The combined weight of the adapter and phone can lead to flex issues. I 'think' I may have better results using a different eyepiece than the one I was using, in which case I'll be a happy public astronomer during Mars opposition. I rate it at 4 stars because some of the difficulty is due to excessive flex in the NEXYZ, else I would give it 5. If used for only a few phones it will do the trick (except very large phones). If used as in my application (many different phones) it doesn't quite hit the mark and I found myself going back to a different device. Great: When things worked out well, it was quick to switch phones for stargaze visitors. Good: Once clamped onto a suitable eyepiece it really does what it claims. X-Y-Z axes adjustments makes cell phone imaging with a telescope a breeze and different cell phones (but not all) can be used with relative ease. Bad: While the NEXYZ is well made, there is some degree of flex, particularly if the Z axis (height above eyepiece) must be extended. The flex means the cell phone's camera lens axis is angled slightly from the eyepiece's optical axis. With some phones I found this meant photos were impossible without holding up the bottom of the phone slightly.

ED M.

2018-06-26T17:46:17

Celestron's new NexYZ smartphone adapter for telescope eyepieces represents a revolution. It solves the critical problems that plagued older adapters. You can take more pictures, and better pictures. At outreach events, more of your visitors can take pictures quickly and safely with very quick transition from one phone to another. You can use the NexYZ on more of your best eyepieces, too. The NexYZ helps you understand many of the problems you might have experienced with another (exasperating?) adapter. (IOW, it solves problems you didn't even know about.) The biggest breakthrough for the NexYZ is the fine control adjustments to align the eyepiece and phone camera correctly. Traditionally, the X-Y adjustment to align the camera lens with the adapter opening and then the eyepiece has been an annoying struggle with more "almost alignments" than "correct alignments". The NexYZ has control knobs to adjust smoothly slide the phone in two directions. There's no aperture hole on the adapter so you only have to align with the eyepiece. Another breakthrough is the vertical (Z-axis) alignment -- in other words how high the camera lens is above the eyepiece. Most other adapters don't have any adjustment for the lens-eyepiece spacing. With the NexYX you have a control knob to elevate and lower the phone relative to the eyepiece. This accommodates smartphones with no case or a thick case. It also helps with eyepieces that have unusual shapes or structures near their top. Importantly, the vertical alignment adjustment helps correct the common vignetting in smartphone astrophotos. By adjust the elevation you can get the full light of the image to fill the camera lens. Other adapters force you to zoom the camera and sacrifice image resolution. The NexYZ lets you use the full resolution of your camera for sharper photos. So the NexYX lets you control the X-, Y- and Z-axis (hence the cute name). But one more breakthrough involves the grip on the eyepiece. Previous adapters struggled to firmly grip eyepieces. If the grip slips a little the photo will show optical distortions. If the grip fails, your expensive smart phone might crash to the ground. With the NexYX, the pincer-arm expands wide enough to fit a lot of eyepieces and the compression adjuster lets you create a well-aligned, rigid connection of the adapter to the eyepiece. The eyepiece grip is under your control. No drops, no distortions. Finally, the bed for the smartphone is easy to operate. Unlike some adapters, the NexYZ can work as well with a case-less phone or a phone in a heavy case. Inserting a phone is simple with a spring-loaded grip. The pieces holding the phone do a good job of avoiding pushing the side buttons on the phone -- another traditional annoyance. Because it's easy to insert and remove a phone, the NexYZ is great for outreach events many people want their own turn to take an astrophoto. No clumsy case stripping. No slow and tedious tightening and loosening. Because of these breakthroughs and features, the NexYZ has set a new standard for smartphone astrophoto adapters. But is some room for improvement. First, some very wide phones might not fit. An iPhone 6 in a bulky Otter case fit with some room to spare. Second, the control knobs are easy to adjust, but a lock on each axis would be nice so you don't disturb the adjustments with bumps or reaching for the wrong knob. Third, there are parts on the telescope side that jut out in front of the adapter. With low profile eyepiece, these projecting bits might contend with the OTA, diagonal, focuser, or set screws. If you have a heavy phone, you might notice the flex of the phone platform and that might cause the camera to be non-perpendicular to the optical path -- resulting in distortions at the edge of the image. Finally, the weight could be a complication for some light-weight telescope mounts. The above limits aside, there's no question that the NexYZ represents a significant advance in smartphone astrophotography. It's a great tool for interactive astronomy outreach -- serving more visitors with better photos. It lowers the entry point for high quality smartphone imaging of solar system objects. It's a winner by a mile. Photos were taken by a outreach event visitor on my dob on 6/23/18 from Rolla, MO.

Joseph S.