Ran out of inward focus with webcam

[cuivenion]

Tried imaging for the first time tonight, started off with Jupiter. Unfortunately even though had the planet onscreen I couldn't get it focused before I ran out of inward travel on the focuser. I'm not sure how to proceed now, any help would be appreciated.

[Atreta]

did you try using your barlow? it may help with it

[Steve Ward]

The 130p is not designed for photography and causes infocus issues with DSLRs too .

As suggested in the above reply a Barlow will get you focus , probably no bad thing with planets anyway.

For DSLR work you may be getting into the realms of moving the primary mirror up the tube slightly .

[ronin]

Is the webcam on an adaptor to enable it to slide into the eyepiece location easily?

It sounds as if something is causing the webcam to sit high.

What was the full arrangement of bits?

Did you have the barlow in?

These can push the focal plane further out, also Jupiter is bright enough that "magnifing" it with a barlow should not be a problem and it is often done.

[Leveye]

You can remove the focuser and while holding the camera body up to the hole see where it reaches focus.Measure the distance. If the travel on the focuser is not good within the middle of this measurement  both inward and outward then you'll need to move the primary forward some. I did this on a night with a bright moon. Marked the position of the mirror with a pencil where it came to focus and re-drilled the holes for the primary. You can always move the mirror back for just viewing.

[cuivenion]

I did try using the Barlow but I lost the image entirely after that. I'll have to give it another go.

[cuivenion]

Is the webcam on an adaptor to enable it to slide into the eyepiece location easily?

It sounds as if something is causing the webcam to sit high.

What was the full arrangement of bits?

Did you have the barlow in?

These can push the focal plane further out, also Jupiter is bright enough that "magnifing" it with a barlow should not be a problem and it is often done.

The webcam does have an 1.25" adapter.

[Steve Ward]

When you have the Barlow fitted you'll need to push the exposure/brightness up in the capture settings , the Barlow will dim down the image considerably and you may well have the target on-chip without realising it .

You'll need to centre the target accurately without the Barlow ( ignore that it's not quite focused ) then remove the camera , fit the Barlow and replace the camera in the focuser.

Push all the Exposure/Gain/ Brightness sliders over to the right (assuming you're running SharpCap ) and then slowly rack the focuser out until the target appears , then you can adjust the sliders to suit your target ( you can save those settings in SharpCap to save time and angst in the future )

Happy hunting ... 

[cuivenion]

When you have the Barlow fitted you'll need to push the exposure/brightness up in the capture settings , the Barlow will dim down the image considerably and you may well have the target on-chip without realising it .

You'll need to centre the target accurately without the Barlow ( ignore that it's not quite focused ) then remove the camera , fit the Barlow and replace the camera in the focuser.

Push all the Exposure/Gain/ Brightness sliders over to the right (assuming you're running SharpCap ) and then slowly rack the focuser out until the target appears , then you can adjust the sliders to suit your target ( you can save those settings in SharpCap to save time and angst in the future )

Happy hunting ... 

Cheers I'll hopefully try it again tonight

[D4N]

Odd, I have a 130P and have been able to achieve prime focus with two different webcams, no Barlow and a few mm to spare on the focuser.

Annoyingly the 130P is sold by SW as ready for astro photography and even has a T2 thread on the focuser but it is woefully short of focuser travel.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Alien 13]

Odd, I have a 130P and have been able to achieve prime focus with two different webcams, no Barlow and a few mm to spare on the focuser.

Annoyingly the 130P is sold by SW as ready for astro photography and even has a T2 thread on the focuser but it is woefully short of focuser travel.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I expect it is to do with which direction the main mirror is moved during colimation.

Having the prime focus close to the stop is no bad thing its what i like about using old 35mm camera lenses you can see an image straight away.

Alan

[D4N]

True but it's not good if it's on the wrong side of the stop

My 50mm lens is like that now the camera is astro modded.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

[craig_0]

try useing your diagonal  i find sometime  i can put it on and it   changes where  the focus is

[cuivenion]

Hi, I'm using a newt so I don't have a diagonal. Not to worry I managed to focus with a barlow.