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Hi all. Can u use a webcam with a seben big boss?

fazerdenzil

By fazerdenzil
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fazerdenzil

fazerdenzil

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Hi everyone, my name is Dean, i'm new to astronomy and have brought a seben 150 x 1400 big boss off of ebay for £90.

My question is this; can I use a webcam adapted to fit my big boss? I've stumbled upon a few things about the big boss these are as follows; after delivery I found it needed collimating so I brought a laser collimator for £25 also of ebay, then was told I had to take out the lens that was in the focuser, I did this then managed to collimate it (after removing the mirror and marking a centre spot, which I learnt from youtube!)

Then I found this isn't a very good telescope but hey it was in my price bracket!

I have a cmos webcam which I adapted to fit the focuser (again learnt from youtube) the results were out of focus on a street lamp as it was cloudy outside! (probably the weather is my fault because I brought a telescope! sorry to all of you 4 that! then I learnt that a ccd webcam was the tool to use! Is this the case?

if so I have to find one to use with windows 8 as that's what my notebook uses (according to rigistax I have the requirements to run registax on my notebook). Is registax a good program to use? or can anyone recommend a simple progame as i'm not exactly computer literate!!?

Would I need to remove the extra lens to use a webcam?

I would luv to hear from other seben users about their experiances with their scopes.

Once again hi to everyone and i'm very happy to be on board, i welcome any and all feedback. Regards, Dean

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adavies8900

adavies8900

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Welcome man :) i had a Seben the one for £50. Not knowing it was going to be bad, but Rubbish telescope is better then no telescope. I lasted last then two weeks and got the skywatcher 150PL but i see you had a better one then me :) i am pretty new to all of this to so sorry i cant help you with your webcam problem i'm pretty sure someone here will :) 

Welcome again dude and hope to see you around :)

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c3po

c3po

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hi Fazerdenzil, and welcome to SGL.

Firstly, as you may have gathered already, the BigBoss isn't the best of scopes, but as they say, any 'scope is better than no 'scope!

My question is this; can I use a webcam adapted to fit my big boss? I've stumbled upon a few things about the big boss these are as follows; after delivery I found it needed collimating so I brought a laser collimator for £25 also of ebay, then was told I had to take out the lens that was in the focuser, I did this then managed to collimate it (after removing the mirror and marking a centre spot, which I learnt from youtube!)

I have a cmos webcam which I adapted to fit the focuser (again learnt from youtube) the results were out of focus on a street lamp as it was cloudy outside! (probably the weather is my fault because I brought a telescope! sorry to all of you 4 that! then I learnt that a ccd webcam was the tool to use! Is this the case?

Yes, you should be able to use a webcam with it, any should do but CCD are best, although a CMOS will work fine, dependent on its low-light sensitivity. Either way, the Registax software will be your best friend here in enabling you to stack individual frames from your webcam footage and provide a reasonable image as a result. Webcams are generally only used for planetary imaging due to their limited sensitivity and exposure times, so i wouldn't go expecting to be able to image things like Nebula and Galaxies with one...

also, you note that you removed the lens from the focus tube, has this been replaced after collimation? If not, this will cause all eyepieces and webcams used with it not to reach focus. The Seben Big Boss uses a short tube design, and as such needs a 'Corrector Lens' to bring into focus the light-cone reflected by the primary on to secondary mirror and then up the focus tube into the eyepiece/webcam. Without it, the light cone focus point will move too far up the focus tube for any EP to reach focus correctly.

Would I need to remove the extra lens to use a webcam?

If you mean the 'extra' lens at the bottom of the focus tube you removed for collimation, no. This must be fitted for the 'scope to reach focus. If you're still experiencing focus problems with a webcam even with the corrector lens in place, you may need an additional Barlow lens to move the focus point even further into the webcam.

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fazerdenzil

fazerdenzil

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Many thanks for the replies guys :smiley:  well chuffed. Yes star forming I have replaced the extra lens as I understand it is needed! Proto star I guess you mean ep = eye piece. The internet is the best place 4 research so I've learnt more about my scope and this site is the dogs nads 4 more info and sum great help, thanks once again peeps.

I still would like to hear from fellow members with or without seben's 4 their input into astronomy as the more I learn the better!

Try fitting a big boss into a Daewoo matiz!!! :laugh:  :grin: 

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c3po

c3po

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Hi dean remove the small cylinder lense from the web cam

Pat

Ahh, yes indeed! The camera's own lens needs to be removed also for it to reach focus on the'scope, didn't think of that myself, good shout Pat!

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Tiny Small

Tiny Small

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I had to laugh when I read the OP. This is usually the story of my life and an expensive way of learning :) Luckily this time I'm not making as many of those mistakes. Welcome to the forum, god luck with what you are trying to achieve and I hope you fall in love with astronomy because it's pretty good to be honest :)

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JamesF

JamesF

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Why oh why can we not edit posts? The above is obviously meant to say good luck, not god luck. I don't even know what god luck is?

There was a bit of an issue some time back with people posting unpleasant stuff and then editing their posts to cover it up, so the ability to edit was restricted until you read (I think) 250 posts.  It's a bit of a pain, but it doesn't seem to take too long to rack up 250 posts.

James

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Tiny Small

Tiny Small

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There was a bit of an issue some time back with people posting unpleasant stuff and then editing their posts to cover it up, so the ability to edit was restricted until you read (I think) 250 posts.  It's a bit of a pain, but it doesn't seem to take too long to rack up 250 posts.

James

I was thinking it might have been something like that but wasn't sure.  Ta :)

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Pete Presland

Pete Presland

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Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire :smiley: i use to own a seben big boss, it wasnt the best scope i have ever owned but it was better than no scope. colimate best you can, it will be fine on some of the brighter objects i the sky. i would try it out on the moon and see what the views are, get comfortable using it, then try Jupiter and carry on from there.

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