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Bresser 8 inch Dobsonian Review

Table of Contents

Introductions #

While looking for a big grab and go scope, I came accross this telescope. I tried to google for reviews, but wasn’t able to find one that would satisfy me. I thought I’d write my own, so others might have an idea of what to expect.

I came in to this hobby through photography. I bought my first scope almost three years ago, during the height of the pandemic. I’ve since bought two more scopes. I’m no Ed Ting, but I’ve used enough telescopes - my own and the local astronomy club’s - so I think I have some idea of what’s available and something to compare to.

All of my own scopes fall in the budget category, so I think I am well calibrated for, what options a beginner might be looking at. With introductions out of the way lets get on with the review.

Review #

If you feel unpatient, jump straight to the Closing Thoughts TL:DR

Unboxing / First Impressions #

Size and Packaging #

The scope came in two boxes, both double boxed and well padded with foam on the inside. Everything arrived in good condition. I’m glad I bought a hand truck, as moving the boxes to the car would have been very unpleasent without a friend or a hand truck to help me.

This is the second time I get surpriced by how big an 8 inch scope really is. Having pondered between an 8" and a 10", I’m glad I chose the former. The tube is about two inches larger than the mirror on its own, rounding to about 10 inches.

The Focuser #

So far I’m impressed with the focuser. It feels every bit as good as it looks in the pictures. Definately no plastic here! It might be the single most expensive part on this scope after the mirror.

Assembling The Bace #

The bace was flat packed, like Ikea furnature, with similar hardware, though instead of screwing directly to the particle board, there were metal thread inserts in the wood, a much more durable option.

The assembly wasn’t difficult, but the instructions were basically only two pictures. Also the pictures were missing two of the six screw holes on the bace board. Not a big issue, but had me scratching my head for a while.

– no tools, no mention of allen wrench or sizes

Horizontal action #

I was a little disapoited with the horizontal action. To my taste it was a bit stiff. I loosened the centre bolt, to make it easier. Then I noticed an unpleasant itermitten scratching sound. I removed the center bolt. The other end was a proper lock screw, which is good to see, and the axel had smooth metal tube and fittings for a center bearing, which is also good to see. The center bearing will last a lifetime, as the screw won’t eat in to the ground board, enlarging the hole.

I proceeded to check the load bearing surfaces. The screws were properly recessed in the plastic blocks (PTFE?), the surfaces looked clean, but the top surface looked odd. It looks like a dimple-textured sheet metal. It also looked like it was cut in a hurry, as the outside edge had a jagged step on one side. The ugly edge was far enough on the rim, that it didn’t interfear with the action. Also, normally nobody will be looking between the plates, and won’t see, what is essentially a cosmetic issue, so I’ll forgive it.

Finally I noticed, that the glue, mounting the metal sheet to the bace plate, had given out on at least one spot. Therefore it was hanging and its endge was scraping on the oppsing plate. Being very light, it doesn’t actually damage anything. When ever a plastic bearing block would come over the spot, it wuld lift the sheet of the bottom, and stop the scraping. It only makes an annoying sound half the time.

Vertical Action #

Like the horizontal, the screws on the ==PTFE?== blocks were properly countersunk. The surface materials looked much more conventional. There were no notches or any other surface issues visible.

Mounting the tube on rocker box, I noticed the “breaks” Bresser had added. They were so tight, they were preventing the other side bearing from setting down. After loosening it with an allen wrench. Eaven after that, I found the action to be too stiff for me, so I loosened the breaks on both sides by a lot. Finally, I had a very smooth vertical, but still a bit sticky horizontal.

Feel and Stuff #

Balance is a little forward – that’s why the breaks.

The tube rings add nice knurled knobs, but the paint was chipping from around the holes.

Center spot was less clear, than I’m used to, looked like it had air bubbles under it.

The collimation was close, but not quite, though not a surprice after a delivery accross europe. Also bringing it over several thresholds..

Inside smell of glue… might have given me a headache. I left it out on the balcony to air out.

The collimation knobs were nice and big, with good gnurling, but felt rough to turn. Also, they were close to limit, so had to move the entire mirror first, to have room to adjust. Coming from a 6" f5, where I can reach the collimation knobs, while looking through my cheshire collimation eyepiece, this was less conveniant, but doable. First timer might need a friend or quite a some decent trial and error.

First Light #

Finder scope #

The first impression of the finder was positive. It has a proper eyecup, which I like. Comparing it to the finder equivalent SkyWatcher finder, the apparent field of view is a little smaller. Also the finder on SkyWatcher is mostly made of aluminum, whera as this finder is exclusively plastic.

I noticed a large speck of dirt on the front lens and soon found it was on the inside. The front element was easy to screw off, and I used a blower pump to blow the speck out, before I re-assembled the finder.

Next I noticed the finder was terribly out of focus. I will say, I had a hard time figuring out how to focus the thing. I needed to be able to screw the front element further in. What I needed to do first was to rotate the black band behind the front element, to make room for the front element.

Why was there no proper manual included with the scope!?

Aligning the finder was a frustrating task. The adjustments are done with three plastic screws. Where on SkyWatcher one of the screws is replaced with a spring loaded pin, so you only need to use two scews and the pin takes off the slack. On Bresser, you need to loosen one or two screws, and tighten the other, to take off the slack.

It wouldn’t be so bad, but the stand for the finder is very flimsy plastic. It flexes so much that it’s difficult to see the what the adjustments do, as most of the movement is the stand flexing. Also it takes a moment to settle.

With proper focus and alignment, the finder is usable. I found, however, that the dew shield is very short and the front element collects dew - or in my case frost - rather quicly. It’s a shame, as you’ll probably want to replace the finder at some point, but the finder shoe is a less common Explore Scientific type.

There are much less options with that mount. You may consider buying a replacement shoe, with the more common Vixen/Porta type dovetail. Bresser does sell one that should fit the scope, but I’m not sure if I want to reward this sort of design choises.

The Action #

In use, I found the action to be decent, that is to say, I forgot about any complaints I had, when fighting with the terrible viewfinder. Even without the distraction, I’m sure I’d be happy with it. Close enough, that it doesn’t get in the way of enjoying the hobby.

Included 25mm Super Plössil #

On the outside, the eyepiece looked a little better than the SkyWatcher 25 mm you get with most scopes. The eye lens is bigger than on the Sky"atcher, so I assumed, the eyepiece wouldn’t be fussy about eye placement. Oh, how wrong I was!

While, optically it comparable to the SkyWatcher starter eyepiece, there was hard vignetting. It was impossible to get the eye close enought to see the full field stop. This made a narrow Plössil eaven more narrow, giveing a somewhat claustrofobic view. The end result wasn’t enjoyable, and I quicly switched to a SkyWatcher 2" 28 mm eyepiece, that came with my 150 PDS.

Being an f6, the coma on the edges was much more manageable, than on my 150 PDS. I didn’t mistake stars for galaxies or nebulae. Scope like this really needs a good 2" eyepiece, to take advantage of the bright views an 8" aparture can give.

The Cool Down & Splitting The Double Double #

In the two hours I’ve been testing the scope, it hasn’t yet settled the ambient temperature of about 0* Celsius, from the 22.7 C room temperature, whence it came. At the two hour mark, it was fine for low to medium power observing (28-20 mm), but trying to split the double double, I envoked the help of my 6 mm Omegon “Gold Line”.

Reaching 200x power, I found no resolution benifit. Looking carefully, I was able to see each double to consist of two bright points, merged at the hip, in to a larger, glowing, two-eyed star. I’ll have to try later, when the mirror has completely acclimated, what sort of sharpness I can get…

The Focuser #

After praising the focuser, I feel bad for turning around to critisize it. Specifically the 2" to 1.25" adaptor, while impressive in look, feel and weight, I didn’t like the tightning screw. The adaptor is of a single screw with a tightning band type. Instead of the screw or screws making direct contact with the eyepiece, it tightenes a brass band. A nice feature usually, but since my eyepieces all have a safety undercut, I need to tighten the screw quite a bit, before the eyepiece is completely secured.

The band starts to give some resistance well before it’s fully secured. The screw diameter is small, making it stiff to rotate. Owershadowed by the impressive 2.5" focuser, I didn’t have much room to work with my rather thin gloves on. This made switch eyepieces a bit of a chore.

Accessories #

  • Terrible finder scope and stand —
  • Poor eyepiece -
  • Small Planosphere+
  • Smart phone adapter+
  • solar filter+

Included Solar Filter #

A full aparture solar filter is included, which I was excited to test. Observing sun spots is something I enjoy and the added aparture, compared to my 4" refractor, should yeald more detailed view.

The filter is a thin film, that appears to be coated on both sides, one with reflective, metallic layer and the other, a blackened surface. Basic idea is similar to a good Baader solar filter I have for my 4" refractor, with the difference that the Baader filter is shiny on both sides. I believe the idea is to prevent internal reflections from the filter.

The filter has a plastic rim that fits snug and secure on the end of the 8" tube. I feel confident that a gust of wind will not blow off the filter by accident, as long as you make sure to push in all the edges properly. Over all, the construction of the filter feels well thought out, so I feel safe using it.

Looking through, I found the image to have a strong yellow/orange tint. Some filters have a tint. It’s mostly a matter of prefrence, of what you like or want. Baader solar film has no tint and the picture is completely white. I have grown to like the white, as for taking pictures, I can apply my own custom tint in post processing. I also, that way I can utilize the information from all the color channels.

The filter is better tuned for the specific aparture, as it’s significantly dimmer than the standard Baader film. By eye, I’d estimate this to let through 10% of the light, making the brightness slightly dim to my eyes. I guess that’s preferable, as the Baader film on my 4" is unconfortably bright and I usually use an ND-06 filter (letting in 25% of the remaining light) to make the view confortable to watch.

I was disapointed with the sharpness I got from the filter. Even form with the minimum magnification, The sun spots were very blurry. My 4" refractor is 100€ cheaper and with the 20€ Baader solar film, in a DIY filter holder, the 4" won the sharpness contest hands down, even with comparable magnification.

Closing Thoughts TL:DR #

I chose this particular scope, because of the atractive price and the large altitude bearings, as well as the sturdy looking focuser.

(For those of you that don’t know, the person who wrote the book on making premium dobsonians has said, the altitude bearings should be at least the diameter of the main mirror, to achieve a smooth action. It has to be said, though, that the altitude bearings are rarely the main issue on this size dobsonians.)

While optically the OTA seems fine to my eye, there are some things that make me not want to recommend this to someone buying their first scope. The competing brands offer better quality of life overall. The finder scope, starter eyepiece and general quality of the small things are better on similarly priced SkyWatchers. The finder shoe on Bresser is a less common Explore Scientific type deal, limiting your options, or requires you to buy a replacement shoe.

The included eyepiece and finder scope were specially disapointing. The included accessories, such as the solar filter and planosfere are ultimately disapointing and should be ignored when making a purchase decision. Much better alternatives can be easily bought and are not very expensive. The overall quality and finishing on everything but the OTA left me wanting. Nothing absolutely deal breaking, but an inconvenianse I wouldn’t wish on anyone starting out. A first scope should be good to go as-is and not invoke frustration. The incompatible finder shoe make me not want to recommend this for anyone else either.

At this price, I cannot recommend the scope, as higher quality alternatives are available at close enough price point. 3/5

TL:DR:TL:DR #

Pros

  • Price
  • Alt bearings
  • Focuser build
  • OTA

Cons

  • Finder scope
  • Finder scope shoe
  • Included eyepiece
  • Az bearing
  • Other than OTA Finish
  • 2" to 1.25" adapter screw
  • User manual

Neutral (not really a minus, but definately not a plus either)

  • Solar filter
  • Planosfear