Bresser Classic 70/350 Refractor Telescope with Aluminium Mount and Smartphone Holder White

I Was looking for a telescope to take on weekends away for the night sky but also for things like birdwatching or items off the coast.The Bresser classic is small and light, it also feels well made and robust. It’s compact enough to fit in a rucksack and the tripod has its own bag so is perfect for the purpose I wanted.Setup was really simple, I read the instructions in advance and had it up and running in under 10 minutes. Using the telescope and tripod does take a little getting used to for a beginner but with a little patience you will get used to the movement and focusing.The tripod does have some stability issues but I felt this was better than most of the reviews have said, I found this much better on a small sturdy table with the legs retracted. Try not to overtighten as movement will be jerky, again practice and patience.In terms of viewing night sky objects I purchased a 10x Barlow lens For around £10 which I would recommend for the best viewing, works really well with the included 12mm eyepiece. I’d also recommend a moon filter if you want to look at a full moon, these can be as little as £4So far i’ve seen Jupiter with moons, Saturn with visible rings, moon in good detail and used it to observe a colony of seals off the coast of Flamborough. Looking forward to mars being at its brightest in September/October.The only issue I have had is that it’s very difficult to use the phone mount, you have to have the most gentlest of touches when adding the camera.All in all , for the price this is a really good scope with enough items included to get you started. The most important thing is to understand what you are buying. Before purchase do read up on what you can expect from any 70mm scope and that you understand the limitations, you’re not going to get the Hubble space telescope for under £100 after all.

The actual scope itself is pretty light but appears to give good results. However everything else about the kit lets it down. The guiding 'scope' is incredibly cheaply made. I cannot get it to retain any zero, it is also so small that it's almost impossible to see well enough to use it for finding objects.The tripod, while might be okay for cameras, is very poor. It is light and vibrates at the slightest opportunity. The head is very stiff, but almost impossible to lock down well enough to prevent movement. The weight of the phone adapter and phone are enough to drag the viewing end of the telescope down unless you crank on the tripod.The eyepieces are appalling. Just cheap plastic that is so reflective on the inside that you get serious chromatic aberration if you try to use them.I was able to use a Neximage Burst camera to replace the eyepieces which resulted in a huge difference. I will add photos of the moon taken through the original eyepices with one taken with the Neximage for comparison.Note, I'm not an expert in any of this. The larger shot of the moon is what can be achieved with a Neximage Burst and a tiny bit of patience. The worse shots were all taken with a phone

excellent quality item from germany perfect optics and a good tripod with weight hook at the base ,always a good idea to stableise whe viewing far objectsI wish it had arrived yesterday as jupiter is well up in the south but my scope did not arive till today (thank you D H L)today sky is all clouds bit rest of week shows clear skysI have added on a 2 times barlow. and a seben zoom they both might be a bit to much for this scope it was sent with a 4mm 12mm and 20mmtomorrow will; tell jupiter here I cometerestrial views are crystal clear with the 20mm and the 12mmbut i need more distance for the 4mm or the barlow this is a great item to take to kielder northumberland where the darkest skies are in the uk.I was up there 2 weeks ago but poor skies so I never opened the car boot

Useful beginners astronomical telescope. I wanted a refractor telescope rather than a Newtonian to avoid any potential mirror tarnishing problems over several years of use. Lightweight and fairly well balanced. Easy to assemble. I was able to see Saturn and its rings and Jupiter. Could just about see 3 of Jupiter's moons as tiny images near the resolution limit for a 70mm refractor telescope. This telescope is bundled with a nice lightweight tripod. I already owned a rather old but very sturdy camera tripod which I will use with this telescope and will use the lightweight tripod for camera use. Tripod was supplied with a carrying case. Good value beginners telescope.

I got this for my husbands birthday. His always wanted one. He was amazed. However takes sometime to get it to focus and he is still having trouble lining up the phone camera to the lens you look through so he can take a good picture. Its not easy especially as this is his first telescope, but he's enjoying his new hobby.

The light weight tripod is "light weight". A little too flimsy for star gazing.The telescope optics are excellent. The eye pieces are fairly basic quality, but not too bad.I bought some better quality "Celestron",eye pieces, the telescope optics deserve it.

Magnification on main scope not great - the smaller scope (for land images) attached to the main one reflects the scenery upside down . All in all disappointed with the product

We bought this for my son’s birthday and really haven’t been happy with it. It’s very flimsy which means that it’s very difficult to focus on one object and then keep it in focus without the whole thing moving. So far we’ve managed to find the moon and not much else. Haven’t been able to focus on anything using the largest eye piece. Blurb said it came with a bag and 3 eye pieces. No bag and only 2 eye pieces. The smart phone holder is a total joke. Absolutely no idea how to use it. Second I put my phone on the holder the whole telescope moves and I lose the focus. Useless! My son is very disappointed with his present.