Telescope Reviews: Bresser Spezial Saturn 20x60

Hi all,

Just recently joined here. Great site with lots of information. Luckily I have already an insight to binoculars for astronomy (after reading up about binoculars when I (stupidly) bought a 25-125x80 zoom) and decided to get a 'proper' pair.

Living in a high light pollution city, and also having to view through my window a lot of the time, I opted for the Bresser Spezial Saturn 20x60:

http://www.bresseroptics.co.uk/details.php?id=411

So far, I cannot say enough about these - super quality. They are light (I can hand hold for a few minutes with these), and using the Oberwerk collimation page, found these binoculars have no (or noticeable) problems.

Another thing is I have wonky eyes - short sighted, with mild astigmatism in the left (so that eye always seems to be out of focus even though it isn't). I don't wear glasses, as I found years ago they actually made my eyes get worse, and a stronger pair each year was required. I since trained myself not to wear them, and now my eyes remain in the same state - so even top ££££ quality binoculars wouldn't do much for me, really.

Of course, as these things go, as soon as I received the binoculars, my area was overcast for 6 days and nights, so I only got to use them over the last 3 days.

So far:

Venus - looks like a searchlight about 2 miles away.
Saturn - semi orange/cream disc, and with averted vision (after looking for a few minutes), one tiny pinprick at about 4 o'clock has to be Titan.
M41 & M42 both found and can be recognised (considering the light pollution here).
Jupiter - sets very late now, just after the Sun (and only visible from then on), so all I can see here is a giant red disc (I expect the moons will be easily visible when the chance arises).
Mercury!!! - My first time seeing this planet - again sets just after the sun and appears just after the sun has set, and shows as a nice vivid large red star - I was well pleased to see this, and I will be able to see it again over the next few nights now I know where to look.

So, all in all, I am well pleased with these binoculars - super quality, light collection is pretty good, and overall just do what I what them to do.

Nick

Edited by Lethe (12/28/08 01:37 AM)

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