Bresser Pulsar

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Brand and Model:Bresser Pulsar
Price ($USD):discontinued
Type:Achromatic Refractor
Attributes: un-checked Go-To un-checked PEC
Aperture:120mm (4.7")
f Ratio:f/8.3
Focal Length:1000mm
Finder:6X30
Electric Power:No
Mount:EQ-4 (CG-5)
Tripod:Standard Aluminium
Weight (lbs):37 lbs.
Dimensions (w/h/d):1.5mx1mx1m
Description:2" focuser; 1/7 wave optics

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Bresser Pulsar
The Bresser refractor I purchased used says Proffesional line on the side. It must be a Pulsar as it is a 120mm refractor. Beening the owner of 3 reflectors ranging in size from 76mm to 8 inches a refractor interested me and this is why I purchased it. I have now owned it for 6 months and have used it for many times for observing. Follows is the review.

This telescope looks to be the one sold under many differnt names in the US. Skywatcher, Celestron, Meade, and Orion all look to have a OTA identical with ther name on it. I am convinced they are the same. Visually it is pleasant to look at the first part I liked was the color. Being a reflector lover the idea of a black scope that allows for quick cooling appeals to me. In a refractor this is not important, but for some reason I feel better knowing all my scopes will the to the outside temperature as quickly as possable. Looking further I knoticed the large primary objective. A 4.7" objective on a refractor is impressive. I do not see many reflections. I knotice two, looking closer I saw the other two much dimmer then the others. They change from a blue to a green color dempending on the angle viewed. This is showing off the multi coating the telescope has. With only two reflections jumping out at me the doublet must be well coated as there should be 4, one for each of the air to air surfaces in the doublet. Now the focuser left something to be desired. The drawtube fits very loosly in the focuser assembly, and is far from having a light touch. The wobbling of the drawtube can be eliminated by tightening the lock screw on the focuser, but I am not sure how you can columnate the scope. The lock screw will set the draw tube at a slightly differnt angle depending on how far out it is when the set crew is tightened. Use of the scope did confirm this. Stars did have a tendency to show defraction rings of a telescope that was out of columnation. They did not show sighns of a over correction or under correction visually though, so the doublet is good. What I did with the focuser is took it apart, looked on the internet and found a way to rebuild it. While this is not what most people would want to do for the cost of the telescope it is a minor inconvience. The rebuild to correct all the problems with the focuser. Visually the telescope performed to my expectaions showing bright images with any defractions spikes! The images are much crisper then what I get with my 8" reflector, but not as bright. After the fix on the fouser I saw no problems with collumnation. I also do not notice any aberations such as astigmitsim. I do see blue halos. Around ver bright stars such as Vega there is blue around the outside, once a star drops to below magnitude 2 or so the halos can not be noticed. A Blueish purple ring around the outside of the moon also can be seen, a moon filter solved this problem eliminating the color. I quickly knoticed false color on Mars, having spent hundreds of hours behind a reflector it jumped out at me. While the false color was not bad it was there. Color filters once again do reduce the amount of blue around the outside of planets. Over all the optics are acceptable, and really great value for the price. You have to remeber this is a achromat not a apo. Since I purchased the telescope used I did not recieve any of the accessories with the telescope. The telescope came with a true 6X30 finder. I would have perfered to see a 35mm or 40mm finder the 6X30 does it's job. The mount for it was what impressed me the most while looking not so impressive, it an be removed an replaced while still remaining sighted in correctly.

The mount I was supplied wit is an EQ-3 or CG-4. This mount seems a little light for the telescope. It does allow for viewing in some wind, below 5 mph there is no shaking. Above that your are forced to reduce the amount of power. Focusing Can be diffuclt, the scope shakes quite a bit when you touch it. So focusing has to be done is shifts. Focus some ket go wait for the sope to settle down, then focus some more. The telscope would be much better used on a EQ-4. Set up is quick taking 10 min. or less. The mount is also easy to use, no fancy "what is this for" gadgets. Polar alighn the scope point at what you want to view. Lock down the axises, turn the RA slow motion control to follow the object. Simple as it gets. The tripod works well so far, just remember to put the eyepiece tray in as it's not a accessory to the tripod, and part of the structure needed to help hold the telescope steady.

Overall the Bresser has become one of my most used telescopes ecause of portabliliy, and ease of set up. I can be outside and viewing in 10 min, I can also get it very easly in the backseat of may car (mount and all) and view at remote locations. The mount leaves something to be desired, and can be a downright frustration at times. So it gets a "5". The telescope itself is a good value. Suffering from what one could reasonably expext an achromat refractor to suffer from. I remeber when a 4.7" refractor would set you back over a $1000. While not a Apo I cannot see a achromat doublet doing a much better job at his apature Optics get an "8". Ease of Use "9" while not goto, you are not challanged to figue out how it works. Value 8 or 9, I choose 8 while inexpsive I feel you really need to be in the reflector range to get a 9 to 10 in value. You can still get a 4.7" reflector less expensive then this telescope. compairing it to other 4.7" refractors on the market it's a "10" for value. Over all "8" High rating. I enjoy the telescope and use it often. The price is right, optics not bad, and the mount works.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Mount:5 Ease of Use:9 Value:8
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=329534

Bresser Pulsar
I bought a Bresser Pulsar about a year ago and I am very happy with it. I bought a RA clock drive too. Views of the moon and especially Jupiter and Saturn are excellent at high magnification wity great clarity even in a light polluted area. The eyepieces are generally of good quality (Kelner) but could be a little bit better. The mount EQ4 is pretty stirdy too. Focussing sometimes is a pain as it could be a bit smoother. Sometimes I wish the viewfinder was a bit larger (6x30) too.
I have started to do some astrophotography now and I am getting some wonderful pictures of the moon and planets.
The clock drive, I have found is OK but needs to be run in for a while so a bought a mains adaptor and run it for a few days!!! It makes alot of difference.
I rate this as a very good refractor for the price I bought it for a year ago.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40267

Bresser Pulsar
This scope has been a great surprise to me. I picked it up off of eBay on a good deal that I just couldn't pass up. The optical quality is significantly better than I had expected. I needed to clean out the OTA tube of some manufacturing debris and I had to recollomate the focuser. Both were minor tasks that should have been done at the factory. Since then I have been able to add full Meade Autostar GOTO functionality to the CG-5 mount for about $300 total and now I have a full GOTO 120mm refractor! The details about my conversion efforts can be found on my personal web site, www.data-plumber.com.
Star tests were greatly improved once the focuser collimation was corrected. I don't have a Takahashi for side-by-side comparison and I live in a city, which makes star tests somewhat less-precise. In spite of that, I was able to resolve every binary that was supposed to be within the limits of a 120mm f8.3 refractor and within the limits of my viewing location. The mount is great in every category except two. First, the mount had trouble with 61 degrees North latitude when in a polar configuration. Problem does not exist in Alt-Az configuration. Because of the added Autostar capabilities, the scope can accurately track the sky in either configuration, so no real big deal. Second, the aluminum legs are not very rigid, which detracts from settling time. Filling them or replacing them with a hardwood equivalent is an excellent idea. The integral worm drives are 144-tooth and have proven to give accuracy equivalent or superior to my other four telescopes. When updated to Autostar functionality, they have demonstrated that whatever periodic error they may have is undetectable beneath the 5 MOA resolution of the Autostar system.
I give the overall quality a "7", but I give the overall value a "10+"!

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40266

Bresser Pulsar
je n'ai pas eu l'occasion de voir sur d'autres lunettes pour comparer mais avec
des telescopes de diamètre plus important 150mm , C8 et 10 , ma lunette n'a pas rougir.le piqué y est; jupiter on peut y voir des détails sur les bandes et saturne le spectacle de ses anneaux est trés beau 5 à 6 satellites sont visibles.Orion est magnifique .M13 les étoiles du bord sont résolues. l'amas de Persée est fabuleux.
Certe,pour des objets trés lumineux, Vénus ,par exemple, est colorée mais on
peut réduire en diafragment

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40264

Bresser Pulsar
extreme color, not acceptable pherical abberation

Overall Rating: 4
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40263

Bresser Pulsar
Excellent optics for the price. Jupiter shows many bandings, Red spot plus two white spots. Saturn is beautiful and has no false colour; 5 or 6 moons are easy.

Orion nebula is great with excellent details. Globulars reveals some stars.

Scope came with metal dew cap, miror diagonal. Deserves better eyepieces.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40260

Bresser Pulsar
Having had this telescope for 18 months now, I am very happy with the sharp images and high contrast which gives detailed views of the Moon, planets doubles and bright deep sky objects e.g Double Cluster in Perseus. Also, it is very sturdily consructed; both the scope with a good 2" focuser and the mount which is a good copy of Vixen's GP mount. Excellent value for money.

Overall Rating: No Vote
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40265

Bresser Pulsar
Have seen Saturn's elusive Crepe ring at x200. Images usually limited by seeing conditions and a small amount of chromatic aberration. I believe there is a chromatic corrector in the pipeline for this scope which will soon be available.

Overall Rating: No Vote
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40262

Bresser Pulsar
Good Telescope for this price!

Overall Rating: No Vote
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40261

Bresser Pulsar
Sharp images. Star test reveals 1/8 wave undercorrection(good). Acceptable chromatic aberration. Mount is EQ-4 (same as CG-5) - stable, but not as good as Vixen GP.
Rating: 9/10

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: <none>
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40258

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