Bresser Skylux 70/700 SF telescope, any good ?

Usjes

Hi,



I see Lidl have a Bresser Skylux 70/700 SF telescope for €90 and I'm wondering if it's any good. It seems to be pretty much the same spec as this:
https://www.bresseruk.com/bresser-skylux-ng-70mm-70-700-refracting-telescope.html
70mm lens, 700mm focal length but it comes with 20mm and 4mm eyepieces (not 12mm as in the above link) => claims magnification range from 35x to 525x when the 3x Barlow lens is included with the 4mm eyepiece.

525x sounds impressive but I have no previous experience with telescopes so I don't really know what spec I should be looking for other than the max magnification or indeed what 525x translates into in terms of the image detail I would see.

Would 525x give you good views of the moon, what about the planets, stars ?
Any other specs I should be looking at and is €90 a reasonable price, I guess its also worth asking what kind of quality one would expect from Bresser ?



Thanks,



Usjes.

Pat Dunne

Usjes wrote: »

Hi,



I see Lidl have a Bresser Skylux 70/700 SF telescope for €90 and I'm wondering if it's any good. It seems to be pretty much the same spec as this:
https://www.bresseruk.com/bresser-skylux-ng-70mm-70-700-refracting-telescope.html
70mm lens, 700mm focal length but it comes with 20mm and 4mm eyepieces (not 12mm as in the above link) => claims magnification range from 35x to 525x when the 3x Barlow lens is included with the 4mm eyepiece.

525x sounds impressive but I have no previous experience with telescopes so I don't really know what spec I should be looking for other than the max magnification or indeed what 525x translates into in terms of the image detail I would see.

Would 525x give you good views of the moon, what about the planets, stars ?
Any other specs I should be looking at and is €90 a reasonable price, I guess its also worth asking what kind of quality one would expect from Bresser ?



Thanks,



Usjes.

Personally, I wouldn’t go near it, as the quality of optics are quite poor.
For the same price you’ll get a great pair 10x50 Binoculars and a Tripod.
The optics will be far better and “Bins“ as we refer to them, are far more versatile and easy to handle.
Something like this would be a good starter pair.
https://ktectelescopes.ie/Astronomy-Binoculars/Helios-Astronomy-Binoculars/Helios-Solana-Range.html

Usjes

Pat Dunne wrote: »

Personally, I wouldn’t go near it, as the quality of optics are quite poor.
For the same price you’ll get a great pair 10x50 Binoculars and a Tripod.
The optics will be far better and “Bins“ as we refer to them, are far more versatile and easy to handle.
Something like this would be a good starter pair.
https://ktectelescopes.ie/Astronomy-Binoculars/Helios-Astronomy-Binoculars/Helios-Solana-Range.html

> as the quality of optics are quite poor.
What's this based on ? The price, or is there something specifically poor about Bresser ? They're German and I can't find anything online indicating that they are particularly poor quality.

The max magnification of the binoculars you suggest is 16x, I get that size isn't everything, eg 150x good quality might be better than 525x poor quality, but here we're talking about 16x vs. 525x, that doesn't even seem to be in the same ballpark. With 16x would you even be able to distinguish between a planet and a star or are the bins only useful for observing the moon ?

Thanks,

Usjes.

Pat Dunne

Usjes wrote: »

> as the quality of optics are quite poor.
What's this based on ? The price, or is there something specifically poor about Bresser ? They're German and I can't find anything online indicating that they are particularly poor quality.

The max magnification of the binoculars you suggest is 16x, I get that size isn't everything, eg 150x good quality might be better than 525x poor quality, but here we're talking about 16x vs. 525x, that doesn't even seem to be in the same ballpark. With 16x would you even be able to distinguish between a planet and a star or are the bins only useful for observing the moon ?

Thanks,

Usjes.

I’m basing my response on the experience of having bought scopes such as the 70/700 many years ago and using Binoculars as well. My current scope is a 10 year old Celestron CPC 9.25 and my Binoculars are a pair of at least 35 year old Nikon 10x50’s, which I had since brand new.

Bresser make starter scopes and very good scopes however the good one’s are substantially more than the Lidl price.

Strange you couldn’t find anything on the internet. I simply googled “where are Besser Telesopes made” and got the following.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bresser

History
Bresser GmbH was founded by Josef Bresser in 1957.
company began by specializing in the import and distribution of binoculars.
Rolf Bresser sold his father's business in 1999 to the American company Meade Instruments in Irvine, California, the company operating under Meade Instruments Europe GmbH until 2009, when it was acquired by former owner Rolf Bresser, its general manager, Helmut Ebbert, and Chinese manufacturer Jinghua Optical Electronics Co., Ltd.

Again I had no difficulty in finding any reviews, when I googled Bresser Skylux. I’ve posted a link from Irish Astronomy which has two posts reviewing the scope
https://www.irishastronomy.org/kunena?view=topic&catid=22&id=1492

iLikeWaffles

It is practical magnification you want to look at. You could make it magnify 2000x but that won't give a good image. Just like a picture with more bits per pixel will look better when zoomed in or rather high resolution will look better to that of lower resolution.

A telescope's focal length divided by the eyepiece's focal length will give you the magnification. A telescope's maximum useful magnification is usually 50 times its aperture in inches. When translated to English: how wide it is... 2.75591 x 50 = ~137.8 would be that scopes practical magnification anything more will start to degrade, so I would imagine the 525x would be very cloudy. Doesn't claim to be 933.3x which is what the 3x barlow on the 4mm would give!

700mm / 20mm = 35x, 700 / 4mm = 175x without the barlow

A 2x barlow lens would turn the 20mm into a 10mm and the 4mm into a 2mm. If it was a 1.5 barlow / 20 = 13.3mm etc

Bigger aperture lets in more light and is therefor higher resolution and capable of higher magnifications. You won't get great results with anything below 6-8 inches imo. That scope might be fine for looking at the moon or giving a wide angle for constellations but for anything larger than 175 magnification would not give great results.

ppn

This is an oldish thread but would appreciate any advice on a budget telescope with tripod that won't fall apart (€100 - 200 max) for mostly land viewing, e.g. mountains. I'm sure that would be a very basic kit but not looking to make any new discoveries.... 🤭