Next Steps for Bresser 127L

[williamallen]

Hi all,

Recently acquired a Bressier Messier 127 L on a Mon-2 mount.  I have been navigating around using the finder and managed to find a few deep sky objects, doubles and Venus in the morning sky.

Occurs life might be easier with a starfinder and motors, but not sure if the Mon-2 is worth investing in, best price I can see for the kit is over £300.   Currently have 10, 15 and 25 PL's in a 25mm reducer (the scope will take 50mm diameter I assume).

Anysuggestions for improving the view gratefully accepted,

Jim

[xtreemchaos]

hi mate, i have had the ar127l for a while and with being a fl9.5 finding stuff can be tricky but over time you will get better, i have my one on a eq5 with tacking motors so i dont know about the Mon-2 mount. stellarium is a great program to help you find stuff, its free to download. i wish you luck with your new scope and clear skys  charl.

[DRT]

Hi Jim,

I have one of these and love it! Mine has an upgraded Moonlite focuser and I use a Rigel Quickfinder rather than the standard finder, which I think helps enormously.

You could improve the views by upgrading your eyepieces but that is an expensive journey! Perhaps look for a second hand Baader Mark III 8-24mm Zoom, which you could pick up for about £120?

Best of luck - I hope you enjoy your new toy

Derek

[williamallen]

Thanks for the suggestions on software and the kit, some more practice is clearly in order while i feed the piggy bank!

Jim

[williamallen]

Hi Jim,

I have one of these and love it! Mine has an upgraded Moonlite focuser and I use a Rigel Quickfinder rather than the standard finder, which I think helps enormously.

You could improve the views by upgrading your eyepieces but that is an expensive journey! Perhaps look for a second hand Baader Mark III 8-24mm Zoom, which you could pick up for about £120?

Best of luck - I hope you enjoy your new toy

Derek

Derek,

Looking at the focuser and wondered if yours just piggy backs on the existing draw tube, or whether the existing focuser has to be removed, it seems pretty well built in!

Jim

[DRT]

The Moonlight was on it when I bought it but the seller also gave me the standard focuser as part of the deal. When I get home later this week I will photograph the unattached standard focuser and you might be able to figure out how it comes off.

Moonlight sell adapters for most popular scopes so you should be able to do this relatively easily.

[Chris]

Hi Jim, welcome to the forum

I also have the Bresser 127L and think it's an incredibly capable and robust refractor for the money. Using the supplied finder is hard work though, some kind of red dot finder would make things easier. Also it's along scope so a pillar extension for your mount and an observing chair will drastically increase observing comfort.

At f/9.5 it's quite kind on eyepieces so fairly cheap widefield eyepieces should work well. 2" widefield eyepieces will give you a much bigger field of view to help find things.

All these things can be added when funds allow, it's alway nice to plan out upgrades to our astro kit, I'm definately not alone in enjoying this aspect to the hobby  

[John]

When I had a Bresser 127L (I liked the scope) I took the stock finder shoe off the scope and replaced it with a Skywatcher compatible one so that I could use my RACI 9x50 finder with it.

I used a pillar extension with mine under an alt-azimuth mount on a steel tubed tripod.

The Moonlite CF2 focuser is the refractor one and you get a Meade AR5 (which is the same scope as the 127L) compatible "flange" as it's called by Moonlite to mate it to the scope tube.

When I had one, there were not a lot of 3rd party focuser options for the Bresser 127L around apart from the Moonlite. The Moonlite focuser upgrade would have cost more than the scope cost me !

[williamallen]

Hi Jim, welcome to the forum

I also have the Bresser 127L and think it's an incredibly capable and robust refractor for the money. Using the supplied finder is hard work though, some kind of red dot finder would make things easier. Also it's along scope so a pillar extension for your mount and an observing chair will drastically increase observing comfort.

At f/9.5 it's quite kind on eyepieces so fairly cheap widefield eyepieces should work well. 2" widefield eyepieces will give you a much bigger field of view to help find things.

All these things can be added when funds allow, it's alway nice to plan out upgrades to our astro kit, I'm definately not alone in enjoying this aspect to the hobby

For now its a Rigel finder, 50mm diagonal and a not too expensive eyepiece to see what the difference is, thanks for the advice Chris.

[williamallen]

Thanks all for advice, and Derek and John for the focuser info, I think I've pieced together whats needed but the cost is pretty steep, so first step is probably some grease and a rubber ring for the focus wheel!

Jim

[DRT]

I managed to pick up a second hand Moonlite in mint condition for my ED100 for £210 recently so it is worth keeping an eye out for those on ABS UK, and here on SGL when you have sufficient posts to use the classifieds

[John]

For now its a Rigel finder, 50mm diagonal and a not too expensive eyepiece to see what the difference is, thanks for the advice Chris.

Thats what I ended up doing with my 127L

[williamallen]

For any other beginners looking at this thread tried the Rigel finder the other night and while it may look cheap and perhaps a little tacky its a great piece of kit and makes finding your way around a whole lot easier.  Although its a"stick on" mount it seems pretty secure and I can't see it falling off any time soon.  Also the Rigel detaches very easily which is important with a heavy tube as it would be all too easily damaged.

Certainly would recommend it.

WiliamJ