Advice on USB Camera

[Beeford Mick]

I recently bought a USB Camera adapter but cant get it to focus I have used it on 3 different web cams and still cant focus Am I doing something wrong? or would it be better buying a ready made camera if so what would you recomend my budget for this would be around £45 or a little more.

[rowan46]

have you taken the lens off the webcam?

[Beeford Mick]

have you taken the lens off the webcam?

Yes I have taken the lens off.

[umadog]

Let's be totally clear here: lens off camera if you're doing prime focus photography, with the CCD at the telescope's focal length and no eyepiece in place. Lens on camera if you're doing eye-piece projection (afocal) photography. BTW, it's called "afocal" because collimated light (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collimated_light) leaves the eyepiece. With prime focal photography you can check where the focal plane is by stretching tissue or tracing paper over the empty focuser, pointing at a bright star or the moon, and focusing until you see a sharp image on the paper. A sharp image means you're in focus and if the CCD were at that plane you would see a focused image on the screen.

[Cornelius Varley]

What telescope are you using and what were you trying to focus on ?