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Bresser Messier R152s review & First Light


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Welcome to First light for my new Bresser Messier R152s last night.

After reading a recent post upon the horrors of buying a scope from e-bay. It was a massive relief to receive a fully working fantastic condition scope from one of the most helpful e-bayers I have ever come across. He put the auction up as a collection only but was happy to post to if the buyer paid for a courier!

I read a few reviews of the scope particularly the Sky at Nights review and decided that I would take the plunge, in the full knowledge that the scope would be a rich field at 750mm.

I picked it up from the depot and was amazed at how much effort had been taken to get the scope to me in one piece; it even has an MDF box with carrying handles.

It took a few hours to get it unwrapped and I constructed the mount and tripod together and it all looked good and went together well. This is my first EQ mount having had the Alt Azi mount on my 4” refractor. I have a lot to learn here!

The Scope was a whole lot bigger than I imagined it would be and I was more than surprised at how good it looked in terms of condition. It came with a 10, 15, 20 Bresser Plossls and a 2x Barlow lens.

The finder scope and the polar alignment scope have an inbuilt led light to assist targeting with an 8X50 bright finder!! The Mon 2) mount was very solid and looks built to last!!

After lugging it all outside, (phew! I thought it was portable) I was pleased that the sky cleared enough for me to look at the moon just before dusk. I could see so much more detail and a much clearer view. Although I don’t have the focal length of the 4” refractor the view even with the Barlow more than made up for it.super optics! I then went in for well earned cuppa to await the sky to darken.

Back out again....Next target was Venus. Yes there was a lot of CA with it as I imagined, but really not too bad and bearable enough. The sky had a little hazy cloud by now but enough to allow me to view well.

Mars was a revelation with a 6mm plossl and a 2x Barlow. It actually looked Red!! I could start to see the hint of some detail but it is getting smaller now and the clouds obscured it a bit

Finally got M81 even with a very bright moon nearby. Which is what this scope says it is good at. I was still pleased with the view and will look forward to better seeing conditions

The clouds rolled in and that put paid to any real viewing, but I am more than happy with the scope. I feel I have got a bargain! I will update in due course when the skies clear again and the moon is out of view.

Chris

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Great report Chris !

The views through a big refractor are lovely and yours sounds like a really nice one :)

Look forward to more reports in due course :hello2:

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Cheers John,

Will review again as soon as I get the chance. So far so good though, after a quick read of the review of the Skywatcher 150 Frac travelscope I am in for some delights. In the meantime I need to do some reading of the instruction manual for polar alignment for quick tracking with the slow motion controls. Will also get some photo's of the scope put together as I think that helps interest in a review.

So far loving this scope!!:hello2:

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Thanks for the review, i have seen some very goods reports on these 6" widefields - i think it was a meade equivalent and they should give some lovely views of extended objects. Ideal for you to explore the rich summer skies!

andrew

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Lovely Chris !

Reminds me a lot of my old Meade AR6 - the focuser on yours looks a lot beefier though :hello2:

It is quite beefy but a little stiff. Still at least I can lock it and it takes 2" eyepieces.

I would be interested in any views upon the benefits of 2" eyepieces?

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....I would be interested in any views upon the benefits of 2" eyepieces?

The benefit of a 2" eyepiece is that it can deliver a wider field of view than a 1.25" in the same focal length. The smaller barrel size restricts the width of the field of view you see. So most 2" eyepieces are in the longer focal lengths, ie: more than 20mm.

Something like a 2" 32mm 70 degree eyepiece would deliver awesome wide views with your scope - showing nearly 3 degrees of sky - perfect for large extended deep sky objects like the Andromeda Galaxy, the Veil Nebula etc and great for rich field sweeping :hello2:

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John as I see it then, there would be no point in buying a smaller 2" EP than 20mm as the field of view would not be too wide? I assume they would be more expensive than the 1.25" due to the extra width glass.

I am so looking forward to the skies clearing again. Will need to work out how to polar align but the manual gives me some clues:eek: and this is something I can grow into.

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2" eyepieces do have more glass and more machining in them than the simpler 1.25" eyepieces and this is reflected in the price and weight.

It depends how "wide" you want your field to be as to when the step up to 2" is needed. For wide angle (say 65 - 70 degrees) it's around 24mm. For ultra-wide (say 82 degrees) its around 18mm and for the mega-wide 100 degree fields you need to move up to 2" from around 14mm to allow such wide vistas.

When you get to these mega-wide eyepieces, there is so much glass and weight involved that putting them in a 2" focuser is much more secure than trusting them to a 1.25" one. With the scopes that use a diagonal (like yours) a 2" diagonal can hold either 2" or 1.25" eyepieces though the use of a simple adapter. Many folks have an eyepiece set with a mix of 1.25" and 2" eyepieces.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All,

At last, the skies cleared for me.... nearly two weeks since after I got the scope.

I was out from dusk to 1am last night and was almost spoilt for choice as to what to see.

First was Venus and this showed a lovely crescent. CA was as per last time, though I did read a report that the more you magnify the less apparent the ca was. It was vey apparent.

Mars, again looked clear and very red (obviously) and needed the full 253 x (6mm Plossl and 2x Barlow) to get a hint of detail. Coupled with this was a bit of wind so the scope was a little difficult to focus but when done it settled down to slight adjustment. I had not had the opportunity to get it lined up with polaris as it was too early in the evening so I had to guess where North was so had to do frequent RA and dec adjustment which didn't help the wobbles. They soon calmed down though and gave me a good view. it is a shame that Mars is dissapearing away from us now.

Polaris appeared I set up the scope to polaris using the polar scope in the mount and found the led finderscope really handy, also one in the finderscope too. I am not sure if all scopes have this but it is really usefull. I have marked the ground where the legs sit with chalk circles for easy set up in the event that polaris is behind the clouds or hasn't come out to make for easy viewing and as I am not imaging, there is no need for 100% accuracy.

M65 ans M66 where my next target. I had tried on four occassions to get these with my old 4" refrac, but had had no joy. The R152s was different. This time I bagged the two of them which at 9.00 Magnitude was a real joy with the light pollution I have locally. true they were very faint but at 35 and 36 Million Light years away, I can forgive them. I am using a low power EP of 25 (x30 ) and then building up to see what mag v Clarity is best. I did use the 6mm and the 9.7mm with a barlow but in the end favoured the 9.7 mm and the 15mm for these two without the barlow. M65 was long and whispy with a barely detectable glow in the middle but M66 was a little better with a definate glow in the centre and a star to it's side. The Galaxy was very stubby compared to M65 but a better target and also made a better sight with the 9.7mm Plossl and the 2x barlow (x156) than M65. No signs of any arms but M66 is the furthest I have seen into the universe to date!!! I think a dark site would be even better!!!

I then turned to Saturn, even with the 6mm and the 2xbarlow it still did not split the rings for me, which was my only dissapointment but I have to keep telling myself that it is the low focal length 760mm and not expect the earth. It was very sharp which is much better than my old 4" scope did. Had my usual marvel at Titan too. Not sure if the other moons were moons or stars!!

Finally went for a couple of previously viewed clusters, M3 and M13.

I couldn't resolve any stars in M3 but could easily resolve stars in M13 even with the 9.7 plossl. Always a favourite this!!

Went to bed a happy man. I am loving this scope. I have no complaints about it at all (except the weight ).

Cheers folks,

Chris P

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Thanks for posting your interesting report. Persevere with Saturn - the cassini division is quite fine, but you should be able to glance it at the extreme edges where the rings are thicker as a fine black sliver.

andrew.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Everyone should have a big widefield frac in their observing armoury, the inky black skies etc make observing very moorish. :grin: Thanks for a great write up Chris and it will certainly not help those with aperture fever!! :grin: :grin: :grin: The ability to see the Cassini division is also dependent on seeing conditions and fine focusing so I wouldn't give up just yet and with darker skies approaching and a lowering of temperatures - you might just be luck!

James

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  • 1 year later...

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