I need some help making a decision.

[Cladinator]

The girlfriend wants to know what I want for my birthday. She suggested a chainsaw (yes, I have an awesome girlfriend that came up with chainsaw all by herself). However, I think the chainsaw is a bit too much.
I have one of four possible scope related birthday presents in mind.

1) The Neximage camera

2) An astronomic UHC filter

3) Baader Planetarium Hyperion Eyepieces (I really want the zoom but its a bit pricey)
or
4) Astronomik CLS light pollution filter.

I have a Nexstar 4SE and I believe that I could benefit from any of these.
Any ideas of what may be a better pick?
I'm kind of leaning towards the eyepieces. The filter might be a good idea but I haven't even seen any nebula or galaxies with my scope yet and don't know if a filter is necessary.
The neximage camera would be cool because I am definitely interested in using my scope for basic amateur level astrophotography.
The EPs would open up some different mag possibilities (I only have those included with the Celestron accessory kit).
I just don't know yet but like I said, I'm leaning more towards the EPs.

[WWPierre]

Easy: as much as she can afford towards the Hyperion Zoom.

[alsetalokin]

I do believe I'd take the chainsaw.

The NexImage is neat, but how many pictures of Jupiter and Saturn can you take? It's not really useful for much else, I find it too noisy for Luna (the Meade LPI is very superior on Luna but the Neximage is better on planets; both are lousy on stars and DSOs are impossible).

The UHC or the LP filter would be useful...but I don't use mine nearly as much as I thought I would when the salesman convinced me to buy them.

The Baader Hyperion...I like the two I've got....

But I don't have a chainsaw.... and I've always wanted one....

[ibase]

Very good advices that you've received from above posts. I have all the 4 items you mentioned (and also the Hyperion zoom), but like Alsetalokin said, my filters aren't getting that much use either, and so with the Neximage which really is for bright objects only as mentioned although someone has posted a really beautiful Jupiter image using the N4SE/Neximage combo. Pierre's suggestion is good too, to just add some and spring for the zoom, but if that's not possible then the fixed-focal length Hyperion will have to do. But even the very best of eyepieces can't do much to improve the view if the scope it were used on were of limited aperture in the 1st place so I think another option is to find a new home for the N4 and put the bd-$'s on a bigger aperture scope, an 8-incher preferably (coming from having used a 4-in one). Just my 2 cents.

Best,

Hernando

[Joe Lalumia]

Another vote for the Hyperion eyepiece (s) ---

[TCA]

I vote for Hyperions.

I have never found filters other than a moon filter even marginally useful. My Ultrablock went up on ebay pretty fast. I find the filters may make things jump out at first, like a nebula against everything else, but then they ruin any of the detail you would otherwise see without it. They do not make up for dark skies at all....pretty useless IMHO. You can still find the fuzzies relatively easily without the filter, it's not a night and day difference. I find filters more useless than useful. Even the moon filter kills some of the detail and I'd usually rather just suffer the moon blindness.