Planetary Imaging Cameras
Using a planetary imager is the most efficient and effective way of taking planetary and lunar images. A planetary imager is capable of taking many images or frames in fast succession. These frames can then be combined and enhanced using a process called stacking. Therefore using your planetary imager, you will need to capture your frames onto a laptop or PC and utilise some software for processing.

This image was taken by our (then) 13 year old daughter using a NexImage 5 Astro Webcam and a Celestron 8 inch SCT. She took about 45 seconds of video and then imported it into a software program called registax. That program aligned and stacked together all of the best frames from her video. She then used the wavelet functions to sharpen and de-noise the image finally resulting in what you see here.
She had a few fails to start off with, but with a little patience and a large amount of trial and error she proved that these results are very achievable with the most modest cameras in this section.
The Celestron Cameras come complete with all you need in the box. You will of course also need a suitable telescope, a windows based laptop and some clear skies. Since this was taken (6 years ago now) many new products and sensors have come onto the market from manufacturers such as ZWO and Altair with their GPCAM. The image capture software has also improved, for example a freely downloadable program called SharpCap takes advantage of the sensitivity of some of these newer cameras and allows longer exposures for entry level deep sky pictures, and has a feature called live stacking that can with the right combination of equipment build up live images of deep sky objects. SharpCap have also released a new polar align feature that can use your guides cope and camera for those who quite literally find polar scopes a pain in the neck! The Altair capture software can deal with dark frame noise reduction too.
Planetary imaging however is only part of the story, some of these cameras can also be used for guiding or in a digital finder set up, and as such are fast becoming an essential part of the astronomers toolkit.

This image was taken by our (then) 13 year old daughter using a NexImage 5 Astro Webcam and a Celestron 8 inch SCT. She took about 45 seconds of video and then imported it into a software program called registax. That program aligned and stacked together all of the best frames from her video. She then used the wavelet functions to sharpen and de-noise the image finally resulting in what you see here.
She had a few fails to start off with, but with a little patience and a large amount of trial and error she proved that these results are very achievable with the most modest cameras in this section.
The Celestron Cameras come complete with all you need in the box. You will of course also need a suitable telescope, a windows based laptop and some clear skies. Since this was taken (6 years ago now) many new products and sensors have come onto the market from manufacturers such as ZWO and Altair with their GPCAM. The image capture software has also improved, for example a freely downloadable program called SharpCap takes advantage of the sensitivity of some of these newer cameras and allows longer exposures for entry level deep sky pictures, and has a feature called live stacking that can with the right combination of equipment build up live images of deep sky objects. SharpCap have also released a new polar align feature that can use your guides cope and camera for those who quite literally find polar scopes a pain in the neck! The Altair capture software can deal with dark frame noise reduction too.
Planetary imaging however is only part of the story, some of these cameras can also be used for guiding or in a digital finder set up, and as such are fast becoming an essential part of the astronomers toolkit.
Showing 53 of 53 products
-
Bresser Universal Smart phone Adapter
£37.00Universal adapter for mounting smartphones to your spotting scope, Telescope or microscope - Ships in 7-10 Days -
Celestron NexImage 5 Solar System Imager (5MP)
£259.00In stock - user lesson availableOut of stock -
EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC 4K Planetary Astro Camera & Guider 8,3 MP
£565.00Typical leadtime 7 working days -
EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC Deep Sky Astro Camera 16MP
£1,036.00Typical leadtime 7 working days -
ZWO ADC Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector
£127.00 -
ZWO ASI120MC-S Colour 1/3" CMOS USB3.0 Camera with Autoguider Port
£158.00£142.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI120MM MINI USB2.0 Monochrome Small Format CMOS Camera with Autoguider Port
£138.00Black Friday OfferOut of stock -
ZWO ASI120MM-S Monochrome CMOS USB3.0 Camera with Autoguider Port
£184.00£166.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI174MM MINI USB2.0 Monochrome Small Format CMOS Camera with Autoguider Port
£422.00£380.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI178MC USB3.0 Back-Illuminated Colour CMOS Camera with Autoguider Port
£284.00£256.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI183MC Colour 4/3" CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera
£549.00£494.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI183MC PRO COOLED Colour 4/3" CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera
£841.00£757.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI183MM Monochrome 4/3" CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera
£750.00£675.00Black Friday Offer. -
ZWO ASI183MM PRO COOLED Mono 4/3" CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Camera
£1,030.00£927.00Black Friday Offer. -
ZWO ASI220MM MINI USB2.0 Monochrome Small Format CMOS Camera with Autoguider Port
£298.00£250.00Black Friday Offer.Out of stock -
ZWO ASI224MC USB3.0 Colour CMOS Camera with SONY Exmor and NIR Technology and Autoguider Port
£195.00£158.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI2400MC PRO COOLED FULL FRAME One Shot Colour Deep Sky Imaging Camera - 24MPixels
£3,469.00£3,122.00Black Friday Offer. -
ZWO ASI2600MC DUO Colour APS-C CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera with Built-In Guiding Sensor
£2,120.00£1,908.00Black Friday Offer! The ASI2600MC Duo combines an imaging and guiding sensor into one compact body!
-
ZWO ASI2600MC PRO Colour APS-C CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera
£1,880.00£1,498.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI2600MC PRO Colour Camera KIT with FD-M42 Filter Drawer & DB2 2" Dual Band Filter
£1,715.00Black Friday Offer! -
ZWO ASI2600MM PRO Mono Camera KIT with EFW7*36mkII, 36mm LRGB, 36mm HSO and OAG-L
£3,098.00Black Friday Offers -
ZWO ASI2600MM PRO Monochrome APS-C CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera
£2,399.00£1,998.00Black Friday offer -
ZWO ASI290MM USB3.0 Mono CMOS Camera with Autoguider Port
£265.00£239.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI294MC Colour 4/3" CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera
£745.00£671.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI294MC Pro (color) USB3.0 Cooled Camera
£1,060.00£954.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI294MM PRO COOLED Monochrome 4/3" CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera
£1,369.00£1,232.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI385MC USB3.0 Colour CMOS Camera
£309.00£278.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI432MM USB3.0 Monochrome CMOS Camera with Large 9 Micron Pixels
£648.00£583.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI462MM USB3.0 Monochrome CMOS Camera with Autoguider Port
£299.00£269.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI482MC USB3.0 Colour Camera KIT with 1.25" CH4 Filter and 1.25" IR-CUT Filter
£485.00£407.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI482MC USB3.0 Colour CMOS Camera with Autoguider Port
£369.00£303.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI533MC PRO Colour Camera KIT with DB1.25 1.25" Dual Band Filter and 1.25" IR-CUT Filter
£970.00£873.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI533MC PRO COOLED Colour 1" CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera
£859.00£773.00Black Friday OfferOut of stock -
ZWO ASI533MM PRO COOLED Monochrome 1" CMOS USB3.0 Deep Sky Imager Camera
£1,080.00£972.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI585MC USB3.0 Colour CMOS Camera with Autoguider Port
£382.00£344.00Black Friday OfferOut of stock -
ZWO ASI6200MC PRO COOLED FULL FRAME One Shot Colour Deep Sky Imaging Camera - 62MPixels
£4,180.00£3,762.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI6200MM PRO COOLED FULL FRAME Monochrome Deep Sky Imaging Camera - 62MPixels
£3,762.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO ASI662MC USB3.0 Colour CMOS Camera with Autoguider Port with High Sensitivity
£262.00£236.00Black Friday Offer!
Out of stock -
ZWO ASI678MC USB3.0 Back-Illuminated Colour CMOS Camera with SONY STARVIS 2 and Autoguider Port
£299.00£269.00Black Friday Offer
-
ZWO ASIair MINI Smart WIFI Accessory for Portable Astro Photography with ZWO ASI Cameras & dSLRs
£215.00£194.00Black Friday Offer!
-
ZWO ASIair PLUS 256G Smart WIFI Accessory for Portable Astro Photography with ZWO ASI Cameras & dSLR
£398.00£358.00New 256GB Version!
Black Friday Offer
-
ZWO ASIair PLUS 256GB Smart WIFI Accessory and ASI120Mini BUNDLE
£546.00£491.00Black Friday Offer
-
ZWO ASIair PLUS 256GB Smart WIFI Accessory and ASI220Mini BUNDLE
£690.00£621.00Black Friday Offer !
-
ZWO ASIair PLUS 256GB Smart WIFI Accessory, ASI120Mini and 30F4 Mini Guidescope BUNDLE
£635.00£572.00Black Friday Offer
-
ZWO ASIair PLUS 32GB Smart WIFI Accessory and ASI120Mini BUNDLE
£464.00£418.00Black Friday Offer
-
ZWO ASIair PLUS 32GB Smart WIFI Accessory and ASI220Mini BUNDLE
£607.00£546.00Black Friday offer !
-
ZWO ASIair PLUS 32GB Smart WIFI Accessory for Portable Astro Photography with ZWO ASI Cameras & dSLR
£315.00£284.00Black Friday Offer
-
ZWO ASIair PLUS 32GB Smart WIFI Accessory, ASI120Mini and 30F4 Mini Guidescope BUNDLE
£555.00£500.00Black Friday Offer
-
ZWO Dovetail Clamp / Dovetail Groove for ASIAIR PRO
£43.30Out of stock -
ZWO EAF - Electronic Automatic Focusmotor - NEW 5V version
£199.00£179.00Black Friday Offer -
ZWO EAF-5V - Electronic Automatic Focusmotor ADVANCED VERSION with TEMPERATURE SENSOR & HAND CONTROL
£246.00£221.00Includes handset and temp sensor
Black Friday Offer
-
ZWO Hand Controller for the ZWO Electronic Automatic Focuser (EAF)
£42.70Out of stock -
ZWO MiniScope 30mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope
£101.00£91.00Black Friday Offer