Seben Big Boss, the del boy of telescopes

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I refiguring seems too much, can the mirror be replaced?

Besides, have you tried putting a real EP in the scope, rather than the horrible things usually sold with them? I found a cheap Konus 4.5" F=500 Newtonian years back, with atrocious performance, entirely due to the plastic little horrors they were passing for EPs. I stuck a 26mm Plossl and a 9mm LV in, and hey presto, the views were pretty decent.

[nephilim]

Ah, still remember the day I enrolled on here and annoumced that I had just acquired a Seben, boy did I get a shock, I could hear the laughter all over the UK. Well times have moved on, got good equipment and the Seben sits on top of a cabinet to remind me of my folly, did not have the heart to get rid of it, maybe one day when some child want to see the moon I will donate it .

Jim

Unfortunately the post pops up when u google seben big boss, I'v just read the above post & decided to look it up to see how they advertise it , to quote 'because of its perfect workmanship and enormous performance deta (whatever that means haha),the unquestioned top telescope of sebens astronomy series', also used are phrases such as 'undreamed of possibilities' and 'tremendous focal length', Iwas also very nearly duped into buying one until I read a few reviews and realised that they basically lie about the whole set-up. Luckily I ended up with the skywatcher 130m eq2 which i'm very happy with. Anyone buying this complete pile of junk could be put off the hobby 4 life!!

[The Sailor]

Anyone buying this complete pile of junk could be put off the hobby 4 life!!

Glad to say I wasn't and am still enjoying it, the Seben is still in place, it has it's faults but it's better than nothing AND it did get me started

Jim

[Astro_Baby]

"But surely for an experienced chap, what problems do they really suffer from that cant be overcome with some know-how?"

Well it would need a new mirror, a new focuser, a better mount and replacement EPs so what you'd be buying is a metal tube for £120.

Personally I dont think they are the Del Boy of telescopes, more like the Rodney Trotter of telescopes. Its painful, and no fun either, having to tell people who have bought a shiny new toy that its a dud. It amazes me people spend cash without any research though.

[tich]

I still have mine and it gives nice results

Jim

I fear you are telling us Porkies Jim

I nearly brought a short tube 8" scope, not a Seben but one that is equally as bad until I came across this site & done some reading through some posts & I'm glad I did.

[The Sailor]

It amazes me people spend cash without any research though.

I probably have more money than sence .

I fear you are telling us Porkies Jim

Thank you Tich .

Second from the right

Jim

[glowjet]

Strangely enough, with all the hype about the quality of the scope, I seem to have read somewhere that Seben make not half bad eye pieces

John.

[John]

I tried a Seben 32mm SWA 2" eyepiece for a while and it was quite OK in slow scopes like most of these eyepieces are. On, the Seben Big Boss, I reckon the scope reviewed here is the same item, more or less:

http://www.cloudynig...hp?item_id=1105

I accept that Jim has found his enjoyable and a route into the hobby and thats good but I'd still find it hard to recommend them to newcomers I'm afraid.

They want £200 for them new on e.bay but that money would buy 5.1" EQ mounted or 6" dobsonian Skywatcher's which have parabolic mirrors and don't use that semi-catadioptic design which is hard to collimate.

[freeflyjay]

when i was looking for a scope (only had mine less than a year a 10" skywatcher dob, second hand with lots of extras for £300) i looked at the same scope, thought wow thats cheap for that apparture, so i did some research, and reailized you get what you pay for, but good deals can be had on the 2nd hand market, mine was from ebay and i love it although it would be nice to have tracking on a eq mount so i could dabble with photo stuff.

[laser_jock99]

Are Seben reflector scopes made with spherical primary mirrors (for cheapness & speed of manufacture)? It sounds possible from what I've read on the Net- all respectable manufacturers use parabolic mirrors. The images could be affected by spherical abberations?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_aberration

In addition to the 'normal' budget reflector issues of bad mirror figure, coma, cheap eyepieces, dodgy mounts & zero cool down time, it will never add up to a good image experience.

[AndyEllis]

I'd go with making a project of re-figuring the mirroe - you never know - it might end up OK and if not, meh

[CFC]

......& decided to look it up to see how they advertise it , to quote 'because of its perfect workmanship and enormous performance deta (whatever that means haha),the unquestioned top telescope of sebens astronomy series', also used are phrases such as 'undreamed of possibilities'

Probably are undreamed of possibilities....question is whether they are best left alone, like a mix of anchovies and custard, served with a little dog poo as an 'amuse bouche'.....

[The Sailor]

like a mix of anchovies and custard, served with a little dog poo as an 'amuse bouche'.....

Not only do you people extract the urine out of my Seben but you have also found out about my wife's cooking

Jim

[AndyEllis]

I nearly bought a seben big boss as my first scope - in the end I got a SkyLux refractor from lidl which I was actually remarkably pleased with (and fifty quid... errrr... that was back at the dawning of time when dinosaurs roamed the house of lords... oh, they still do)

[Spanishfly]

If it was new, mail order and from a business seller, you have 7 working days

to change your mind

If the seller is in the UK, that is, and therefore subject to UK regulations. A lot of sellers on eBay are based in Hong Kong.

[Spanishfly]

I nearly bought a seben big boss as my first scope - in the end I got a SkyLux refractor from lidl which I was actually remarkably pleased with (and fifty quid... errrr... that was back at the dawning of time when dinosaurs roamed the house of lords... oh, they still do)

I started off with one of those - amazing value - included an Astro-3 moiunt. And with a couple of half-decent Plossls gave some excellent views. I deeply regret selling it.

[freeflyjay]

i once brought a piece of Rubbish that i gave away for free knowing it was poor......but it was enough, if i`d got it as a child it would of inspired me to search for better.....look up, read books, and let your mind just expand, if you spend £5 grand on a scope you will not see any more than a grey smudge ...if you go to a dark site you may see a grey smudge with wings, if you want wiews like hubble you need a really big scope and nassa to get you right up there, you will never see with your eye what you see on this site with the pictures, those pictures (dyslecic sorry ) you see are long exposure with multiples stacked upon each other then processed in software to get a good acceptable image.

[Welrod50]

I think you get the picture now

Send it back! You could argue that it is faulty so any warranty it has should cover it beyond the 7 days you have to send back under distance selling regs. I also reckon you need to hide the computer from yourself when you plan on having a beer. I must admit, I did laugh about the bit when you bought a car with no engine

Good luck !

[knobby]

My mate ( its always my mate isn't it) sold a slice of fried bread with marmite on a 3 day listing when he was drunk... Went for 49p free delivery.

You didn't buy that did you?

[Spanishfly]

I also reckon you need to hide the computer from yourself when you plan on having a beer.

I need to do that as well. Last week when I had imbibed a little I ordered a Skywatcher 7-21mm zoom e/p from Sky´s the Limit - 36.99 UKP including delivery to my door for free. Oh well it isn´t too much to lose - you never know it might surprise me!

[Neil_F]

Hi all,

Having decided I wanted a telescope and seeking advice on this site, to which I was advised the Dobsonian as a good scope (advice I should have heeded), I got very drunk and ordered a Seben Big Boss on ebay. Wow what a large aperture for such a cheap price I thought.

Well, never have I regretted a purchase so much (apart from the time I was drunk and bought a car on ebay, to discover it didnt have an engine). Anyway, it is the most pathetic useless piece of equipment I have ever had the mispleasure of owning

The optics are atrocious, grainy and blurred, the mount is equally as bad, cumbersome and awkward.

If anyone has any good ideas on how I can destroy it, that will give me £120 of satisfaction, let me know. I am hoping the guys at the local tip will crush it with a JCB while I film it - I will post this on youtube if it happens!!

So anyway, I have wasted my money, please anyone who thinks this is a good buy, DONT DO IT.

I am left with about £100 that I'll either get some bino's with or a lower grade Celestron (any opinions welcome...).

So thats it rant over, dont buy a Seben, get five toilet rolls, celotape them together and you'll have something vastly better.

ROAR!!!!

I have a very nice 3 shot semi automatic 12 bore that would make a nice ending for this piece of junk (no offence) or, I hold a Class 2 explosives license with around 2lb of explosive in stock...........Ba-BOOM!!!!!

[LeeB]

Don't listen to them. Selling it on would be wrong, the problem with the world today is just that attitude.

Passing misery along is not good for the soul. No matter how much it helps the wallet.

I have only looked through one seben and struggled to get a focus even at low mag. It also had astigmatism and only a spherical mirror on a short focus arghhhh!!!!

[Grotemobile]

Another owner of a 150 ,1400 FL Seban .In the focuser tube

is a 1.5 barlow lense.This is what gives it its long F/L.I took the

whole thing apart.It was all loose.Had soom fun with that.

Got some good EPs & it was ok for the moon & planets.

I gave the whole lot away .Dad & son have had a lot of

fun with it.Better than sitting in my loft.Nice to get someone

else started in this hobby.

Steve.

[TonyD]

Of course, the other problem with Seben telescopes is that whenever you do any viewing or imaging, everything you look at has SEBEN written on it...

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4cee2ac55a

EDIT

Interesting to read in the listing:

Please consider that the market has been flooded with many different offers for astronomy products just recently. But behind most of these offers products of bad quality or second choice are hiding, which the clueless customer can not determine as such.

Many of the seemingly top offers appear on the market overnight and disappear as quickly for a good reason. Consequently the customers are stuck with a product of low quality; without assistance, spare parts and repair service.

For a few months now disappointed astronomy customers of other sellers have been contacting us - disappointed with their product or their seller - asking us for assistance. In most cases they paid a proud price to purchase a telescope and nonetheless received an item with faults or defects. Take into consideration that only a small part needs to break; if the seller and/or the product are not available anymore, what you will remain with is only scrap. Seben instead holds a large spare part depot and is even able to help customers who bought a Seben product more than 10 years ago.

Far worse however is the fact that such easy-come-easy-go-sellers often imitate our Seben advertisements and try to mislead the customers into believing they are purchasing a high quality Seben astronomy product. We absolutely want to dissociate ourselves from such offers and we do not have spare parts or accessories for such products. We would like to clarify this in advance to avoid any further disappointments.

Trust in Seben astronomy products only, as they have already been tried and tested thousand fold! Buy from us with the total reassurance that you will get time-proven quality and good service!

[breezy]

Blimey my cocker spaniel could have typed that batter