Seben's Big Boss 1400mm-150 Reflector

[The Sailor]

Hello all, I have bought the above scope and have a number of question for you. First of all, I have been interested in astronomy for many years but have never had the time to get started. This weekend I bought the scope secondhand, no checks or readups, stuck with it so am making the best of it. I have spent the last day or two setting the gear up and lot of questions have come to mind, if you don't mind I will list them and anyone can pick and choose .

1. Is there a manual available for the telescope, have emailed a seller regarding this but no reply so far.

2. I have set the gear up, EQ mount balanced, finder has been setup. What I am worried about here is that the image in the telescope is at an angle, I used a windtower as a reference point to align the finder and this is at an angle of almost 45 degrees in the scope, is there something out of alingmnet and if so can this be sorted or is this normal.

That is it for the moment, questions regarding lenses, motors and cameras can come later, hope someone can answer, thanks in advance.

Jim

[scotastro]

If you mean the tower looks like it's at a 45deg angle when looking through the eyepiece. It is normal.

Sorry cannot help with a manual.

Mike

[riklaunim]

Newtonian telescopes have flipped view upside down.

As for seben - you have bad barlow in the focuser which lowers view quality. If you remove the barlow it probably won't be much better as the scope is in some way designed to work with it. So don't count for good quality It may work fairly or fail.

Whats funny is that on (some?) seben sites they wrote funny things like they use computer displays to check the quality of elements

[The Sailor]

Thank you for that, I am using a Barlow 1.5x Erecting eyepiece to counteract the upside down view, but that does not help seeing a tower at that angle. As for the manual, not a real problem as I have found a lot of info on setup on the web, just would be nice to have, again thank you. So far am happy with what I got for the price paid.

Jim

[John]

When you use the scope for astronomy don't bother with the erecting eyepiece it won't improve the views at all.

I believe your scope has a barlow-type lens permanently fixed to the bottom of the drawtube (the tube you put the eyepiece into). This is the way the scope can have a focal length of 1400mm in a relatively compact tube. This is what riklaunim was referring to.

Use the daylight to get used to how the scope works and to align the finder scope with the main scope (use a distant object like a church tower).

When you start to use it I'd suggest sticking to low magnifications to start with eg: the 20mm eyepiece.

[The Sailor]

Okay, my next question is to do with the lenses, I have the following, would be grateful for a guide as to how and when to use them:

1 x 1.5x Eecting Eyepiece - This I have used to flip the upside down view only

1 x 2x Barlow

1 x Plossl 6.5mm

1 x Plossl 25mm

1 x Green filter

Thank you in advance.

Jim

[The Sailor]

When you use the scope for astronomy don't bother with the erecting eyepiece it won't improve the views at all.

I believe your scope has a barlow-type lens permanently fixed to the bottom of the drawtube (the tube you put the eyepiece into). This is the way the scope can have a focal length of 1400mm in a relatively compact tube. This is what riklaunim was referring to.

Use the daylight to get used to how the scope works and to align the finder scope with the main scope (use a distant object like a church tower).

When you start to use it I'd suggest sticking to low magnifications to start with eg: the 20mm eyepiece.

John, thank you, yes I understand all that and have been doing most of what you said, the windtower, maybe 3km away was what I used to align the finder/main scope.

Jim

[John]

For astronomy you will only need the last 4 items.

You have 2 plossl-type eyepieces - the 25mm gives 56x magnification in your scope I think and the 6.5mm gives 215x. The 2x barlow lens doubles the power the each eyepiece gives - you put the barlow lens in 1st then the eyepiece into the barlow lens. You should only use the barlow with the 20mm eyepiece - using it with the 6.5mm will give far too much power for the scope and the UK seeing conditions.

The green filter could be used to tone down the brightness of the moon and will bring out a little more details on some planets. You screw the filter onto the end of the eyepieces.

[The Sailor]

John, thank you for that, much grateful. Have been experimenting a lot and it has been a hit or miss affair, will use them tonight and let you know how is goes.

Jim

[keithatrochdale]

Hi

I have one of these too.

Not had a chance to really play with it, but when I got it, I took it to a friends to have a play and we used this laser collimator on it and found that the secondary mirror was so far out that only part of the light was going through it. The adjusting screws did not allow it to be aligned, so we had to made a plate to go between the screws and the base of the mirror holder to allow us to adjust it.

Also the inside of my tube is almost gloss, so I have got some flock paper to stick inside to make it matt; a coat of matt paint would be an alternative.

It is best described as a 'Cheap and cheerful' scope, do not expect it to be as good as a Rolls Royce, but it is a good start.

I could photograph the manual for you, but it is completely usless and is not worth the effort IMHO.

Please keep me up to speed on how you find it.

PS If looking at the moon, you may find it too bright, so put the big tube cap back on and remove the small cap.

[The Sailor]

Keith, thanks for that, I will bear that in mind regarding the adjustments, and yes, I have found the moon to be very bright so the cap went on. At he moment there are clear nights with little cloud here so am taking advantage and seeing what I can get out of it. I see you have a motor drive, I have emailed Cisco to find out the specs and what it is capable of but no reply as yet, would be grateful if you could tell me what you can do with it, can you remote it with a cable? Thanks for the reply on the manual, thought as much regarding usefullness, have printed off reams of internet pages on how to set the thing up.

Jim

[keithatrochdale]

Hi all the motor does is drive the RA to keep it on track, providing you have got the polar alignment correct. It is just a geared down motor with a variable speed control so you can keep the object in the field - very primitive. It connects onto the same shaft as the flexible control cable.

It is not a goto mount or similar.

Best advice would be to join a local society and get advice some hands on help from them. I have found it so helpful, being a beginner; and I get to play with some of their big toys too.

Where abouts are you?

[mdstuart]

Have you managed to line that finder up? Point the scope using the low power eyepeice at a chimney etc a fair way off and then move the finder using the screws provided so the chimney is in the centre of the finder...

Now when you point the scope at that bright white object to the south at the moment using the finder and then look through the eyepiece you should see Jupiter.

Should look like a little white circle with moons either side..

Good luck..do report back...

Mark

[The Sailor]

Hi all the motor does is drive the RA to keep it on track, providing you have got the polar alignment correct. It is just a geared down motor with a variable speed control so you can keep the object in the field - very primitive. It connects onto the same shaft as the flexible control cable.

It is not a goto mount or similar.

Best advice would be to join a local society and get advice some hands on help from them. I have found it so helpful, being a beginner; and I get to play with some of their big toys too.

Where abouts are you?

Thanks Keith, I thought that was the case with the motor, not a problem. I am in Lowestoft, have not checked as yet what clubs are in the area, will do that when I have a chance. What I am hoping to do is build an observatory in the garden and then remote control the telescope to my computer, I can just hear the laughing comming down the line now . Before I do that I want to ensure that the scope will give me what I want, at the moment it may be hit or miss.

Jim

[yesyes]

What I am worried about here is that the image in the telescope is at an angle, I used a windtower as a reference point to align the finder and this is at an angle of almost 45 degrees in the scope, is there something out of alingmnet and if so can this be sorted or is this normal.

Hmmmm, does this change when you rotate the tube in the tube rings? I have a feeling that the angle of the wind tower is the same as the rotation of the OTA in the tube rings.

[The Sailor]

Hmmmm, does this change when you rotate the tube in the tube rings? I have a feeling that the angle of the wind tower is the same as the rotation of the OTA in the tube rings.

Yesyes, thanks for that, too late now to start playing about with it, I will have a look at that tomorrow.

Jim

[The Sailor]

Hmmmm, does this change when you rotate the tube in the tube rings? I have a feeling that the angle of the wind tower is the same as the rotation of the OTA in the tube rings.

Yesyes, thank you for that piece of info, loosened the straps and rotated the scope, hey presto, the earth is flat!!! That was great, have spent the morning realigning everything and all is well, only problem is I now have to sit to look through the eyepiece, rather stand but not a problem.

I am using the scope through a bedroom window so not the best view but will have to do till I get something sorted out for outdoors.

Jim

[John]

Viewing through a bedroom window is no good for astronomy use really - even if the window is open, the heat currents from the house will spoil your views so try and get outside when you use it for astronomy.

[yesyes]

And for astronomy it doesn't really matter if what you see is rotated. I'd prefer viewing comfort over correct object orientation.

Besides, the moment you slew to another target the eyepiece / drawtube will have moved to a different position rotating the view again. At least on an EQ mount.

[The Sailor]

Viewing through a bedroom window is no good for astronomy use really - even if the window is open, the heat currents from the house will spoil your views so try and get outside when you use it for astronomy.

John I agree, but untill I can sort something out then it will be the window for the present, this is one of many hobbies I have so will be a few weeks untill I have the time to do this.

Jim

[The Sailor]

Although I am using the scope in the bedroom I enjoyed a good viewing of the moon late last night. I now know what is available to me and wish to build on this, to this end I have been looking at motors for the EQ3 mount. I would be grateful for any information about types and what is the best for what I have. Cisco replied to my email and sent me a manual of their motor drive, was not impressed as it was only a one axis drive. I have already looked at a number of options but would like to hear from people with some experience of this subject.

Jim

[yesyes]

On an equatorial mount you only need to drive one axis to track an object. Unless you want goto as described here:

EQ3 Mount Conversion

Also, are you sure it was Cisco who replied?

[The Sailor]

Thanks yesyes, will look at that link in a few secs . Mmmm, just checked, Ciscoshop lol.

Jim

[Cornelius Varley]

Who is Cisco ?

I wouldn't try to convert the mount to goto, the RA tracking is all that is needed is keep an object in the FOV. Looking at the Seben site the mount differs from a Skywatcher EQ3-2 so using the Skywatcher dual axis drives would be difficult without making new brackets to attach the motors.

Peter

[The Sailor]

Who is Cisco ?

I wouldn't try to convert the mount to goto, the RA tracking is all that is needed is keep an object in the FOV. Looking at the Seben site the mount differs from a Skywatcher EQ3-2 so using the Skywatcher dual axis drives would be difficult without making new brackets to attach the motors.

Peter

Sorry about the confusion, took me a time to locate the webpage .

Here is a link:

Ciscoshop

Jim