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Is a Bresser 70mm at £40 worth it?


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Hi, the local "antique" shop has got a Bresser 70mm scope on an equatorial mount with 3 eyepieces. The bag with it actually says Meade but the scope is Bresser with a blue tube.

Can't see any other name on it unfortunately.

Would it be worth buying for the occasional use considering I live in quiet polluted sky near Maidstone, Kent?

I use to have a Celestron C8 but had to sell it about 15 years ago.

Thanks,

Steve

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I have one myself and agree with KK. Its great for looking at Saturn and even better for the moon. Ive taken some great images of the moon with it (theres one in the lunar section under my username amonth or two back). Id buy a fairly decent Plossl eyepiece and a barlow and itll keep you happy for a year or two. Its a good scope for a begineer but Im looking to get an 8" reflector now though.

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The good thing is that it comes with a decent mount. I even managed to image Saturn with one. The one I used suffered from some internal reflections in the draw tube and the eyepieces left a little to be desired but it was certainly a competent enough scope. Lunar views were great and you will get nice views of brighter DSOs.

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I bought one from Lidl a few weeks ago. I thought it was great looking at the moon with it. It's my first scope, so I can't compare it with anything. I haven't seen anything cool like nebulae through it yet, but the pleiades is definately worth a look.

I just came in from looking at mars through it. I couldn't see much detail, but it was quite clear that it was a planet and not a star. Another world! Wow! I struggled to focus using the highest mag eyepiece(x175), but my 58x one was good. There was a bit of colour around the disc, blue on one side red on the other. I'm a complete newbie, but I think there is a slight colour problem you can get with cheap telescopes.

Peace and Clear Skies.

Becky.

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Becky, you will be struggling to see any detail on Mars with 70mm aperture. x140 is probably your workable limit of magnification. You should be able to see the rings of Saturn very clearly though. If you want to enjoy some deep sky viewing switch to low power and take a peek at the Orion nebula. Also impressive is the double cluster between Cassiopia and Pereus. Other great targets at the moment are the 3 open clusters in Auriga - they are easily visible but look impossibly delicate and distant. Also you can still catch the fuzz that is M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy, not a particularly impressive view but it is our nearby galactic neighbour, contains trillions of stars and the light you will be looking at has taken 3 million years to reach us. It is very likely that there are a number of intelligent beings peering back at us! Makes you think!!

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If you want to enjoy some deep sky viewing switch to low power and take a peek at the Orion nebula. Also impressive is the double cluster between Cassiopia and Pereus. Other great targets at the moment are the 3 open clusters in Auriga - they are easily visible but look impossibly delicate and distant. Also you can still catch the fuzz that is M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy, not a particularly impressive view but it is our nearby galactic neighbour, contains trillions of stars and the light you will be looking at has taken 3 million years to reach us. It is very likely that there are a number of intelligent beings peering back at us! Makes you think!!

The Double Cluster and Andromeda sounds like fun to try. I've had a few tries at the Orion Nebula, but seen nothing. I think I need to get out of the city and get a dark sky. Here in Birmingham there's just too much light about. Last night was the darkest sky I had seen for ages. Saw a few satellites, so it was pretty clear but it got hazy quickly. My boyfriend is going to take me one Saturday Night to a place called 'Brown Clee Hill' in dark rural Shropshire. Should be a good spot :D

Rus: Thanks for the info about the colour.

Peace and Clear Skies.

Becky.

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I would think it was worth at least that much. The colour you see around Mars in your scope, Helen, is chromatic aberration, a feature of achromatic scopes. A cheap way to get rid of most of it is to put a pale yellow filter in. The scope is theoretically capable of 140x, but i think anything over 100x with these scopes is pushing your luck.

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Well, I thought I'd be cheeky and offer him £30, which he has just accepted.

How can I tell the difference between the Lidl scope that retailed at £50 and the other 70mm Bresser's, Lyra and Skylux that retail at Amazon for £100?

Or are they all the same scope?

Steve

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I would think it was worth at least that much. The colour you see around Mars in your scope, Helen, is chromatic aberration, a feature of achromatic scopes. A cheap way to get rid of most of it is to put a pale yellow filter in. The scope is theoretically capable of 140x, but i think anything over 100x with these scopes is pushing your luck.

I think you might have meant me rather than Helen when you said about colour. I'll try making some sort of filter and see what happens. I didn't realise that the scope had a theoretical limit of around 140x- one of the EPs is a 4mm which gives 175x and is almost useless due to wobble and difficulty of focussing. I think you are right that lower mag is much better for this scope. I think I've said it elsewhere, but with the 20mm EP the moon looks amazing :D.

Peace and Clear Skies,

Becky.

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I would think it was worth at least that much. The colour you see around Mars in your scope, Helen, is chromatic aberration, a feature of achromatic scopes. A cheap way to get rid of most of it is to put a pale yellow filter in. The scope is theoretically capable of 140x, but i think anything over 100x with these scopes is pushing your luck.

I think you might have meant me rather than Helen when you said about colour. I'll try making some sort of filter and see what happens. I didn't realise that the scope had a theoretical limit of around 140x- one of the EPs is a 4mm which gives 175x and is almost useless due to wobble and difficulty of focussing. I think you are right that lower mag is much better for this scope. I think I've said it elsewhere, but with the 20mm EP the moon looks amazing :D.

Peace and Clear Skies,

Becky.

Sorry. I'm old. I hadn't seen your name for a minute, and I forgot who you were. :D :D

Any scope has a theoretical limit of 2 x the diameter of the objective in millimeters. Whether you can ever achieve this depends on the quality of your optics, and whether you can achieve it on any given night depends on the quality of the atmosphere at the time. I have found that almost any scope works fairly well up to about 2/3 of the theoretical maximum. When looking at the Moon on a good night, I have pushed both my scopes to a bit beyond the theory, but it's not a good idea on other targets, usually.

Seventy to 100x is a nice range for looking at many DSOs, and the larger ones fit into even lower magnifications. I think the Pleiades are wonderful at 25x. :lol:

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Seventy to 100x is a nice range for looking at many DSOs, and the larger ones fit into even lower magnifications. I think the Pleiades are wonderful at 25x. :D

Thanks for the info about the scope and magnification. My 2 sensible EPs are 35x and 58x. I think in future I'll maybe look out for a couple around 20x and 80x.

On the Pleiades, I love them too. I reckon they look great even with just your eyes. A dark sky really brings them out a treat. Through the 58x they look amazing, but I'm still forgetting everything is reversed, so I keep getting confused :D The Native Maericans have wonderful myths about the Pleiades.

Peace and Clear Skies.

Becky.

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Well, I've now gone and bought a Celestron Nexstar 80 GTL for £62.

Thought that the additional aperture :D and motorised goto mount was worth the extra.

Is £62 OK for this scope?

Steve

Wow, isn't the mount worth at least that on its own?

Peace and Clear Skies.

Becky.

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Well, I thought I'd be cheeky and offer him £30, which he has just accepted.

How can I tell the difference between the Lidl scope that retailed at £50 and the other 70mm Bresser's, Lyra and Skylux that retail at Amazon for £100?

Or are they all the same scope?

Steve

most small scopes are clones made in the same factory in china , tasco , buhsnell , celestron,bresser ,skywatcher and even more brand names on

Ebay ! soume telescopes are suplied with better quality eyepeices and the the tube colour etc ,basicly you are paying for the brand name and you can pay up to £30 in soume cases for the same telescope

Robert :saturn:

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Well, I've now gone and bought a Celestron Nexstar 80 GTL for £62.

Thought that the additional aperture :D and motorised goto mount was worth the extra.

Is £62 OK for this scope?

Steve

Steve,

As many eyepieces cost more than that I think you can safely say that you got a good deal :D

Additional aperture is always worth having - as the saying goes "Aperture is King !".

John

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  • 10 years later...
On 01/02/2008 at 12:49, THEPLOUGH said:

It's got too be worth £40, even if just for the mount and the EPs.

Go for it before someone else snaps it up..

Geoff.. :whip2:

I have a 70mm bresser that I use mainly for terestrial work i thik it set me back £89 from amazon.

in my opinion it outclasses celestrons.

its made in germany and not china solid build with a great tripod super for the moon and although I have not tried it due to heat haze I would thik it will tackle jupiter no probs

and  you say £40 can you tell me where the shop is please?

buy it! I say  you won't regret it

 

 

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26 minutes ago, 12bore pete said:

I have a 70mm bresser that I use mainly for terestrial work i thik it set me back £89 from amazon.

in my opinion it outclasses celestrons.

its made in germany and not china solid build with a great tripod super for the moon and although I have not tried it due to heat haze I would thik it will tackle jupiter no probs

and  you say £40 can you tell me where the shop is please?

buy it! I say  you won't regret it

 

 

Old Bressers (ie: 1980's to 1990's) were made in Japan often, sometimes by Vixen. Now they are manufactured in Taiwan or China. They stil have some decent scopes in their range though. The Chinese make pretty good scopes :smiley:

This thread is 10 years old - I suspect the £40 stock has sold out.

 

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On 30/01/2008 at 10:34, Stephen Green said:

Just to add my twp penney worth I beleve that Bresser is Meade in anothr name so BCF tell me

Stephen

Bresser is the European branding. Meade is the American branding, but both the same company.

LOL, i just noticed the date on this thread. 

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