I am wary of buying a scope with an aperture that is too small to be useful. That is why I came to this forum to hopefully get impartial and friendly advice, which I have to this point. I guess being a newbie to telescopes I am looking at too many and getting confused around the whole issue. Longer term I want to be able to see more DSOs and also get into astrophotography, but I know this is an expensive project. I am not sure whether to get a dobsonian style mount such as the Heritage 100p, which I am more inclined to buy at the moment, or a tripod mounted telescope which can be easily used anywhere without having to take a table with me. I now want to see these in more detail, especially Jupiter and Saturn.ДЇor the short-term I want to get an easy to use, easy to transport telescope. I have seen some of the easier Messier objects, such as the Orion Nebula. I decided about 8 months ago to give itВ a try and I bought a pair of Celestron 10-30 x 50 binoculars. I have been interested in the stars for as long as I can remember, but have always thought of it as too difficult, especially recognising individual stars and constellations. So, all told, maybe worth the risk but maybe not. So perhaps Meade/Bresser are trying to undercut Celestron prices to gain a larger segment of this end of the market. The Bresser brand does include good telescopes in the 500 to 1000 pound range - but this certainly does not mean that a Bresser at under 100 pounds is anything like a close relation! However I have seen several offers for Meade/Bresser lower end telescopes which appear to be cheaper in terms of similar specifications than equivilent Celestron models. Part of the marketing strategy is to sell cheap telescopes based on the reputation of telescopes higher up in the chain. The next level is entry into astronomy as a serious hobby, then telescopes for dedicated amateur astronomers, and finally at the top a very small area of exceptional quality telescopes bought by universities etc. At the lower end, there are telescopes designed to be sold by department stores and marketing operations like Nat Geo - their public might best be defined as casual impulse astronomers (wow, I'll be able to see images like the Hubble, or this will help my little boy to become a great scientist!). Both Synta and Jingua have similar strategies. Telescopes can be divided into price brackets, each very specifically aimed at a particular type of consumer. Secondly, the telescope market is complex and fiercely competative. The biggest is Synta which owns Celestron and Skywatcher, while the second is Jinghua Optics & Electronics which distributes through the Meade, Bresser and Explore Scientific labels. More recently however the majority of these have become little more than brand names for two large Chinese companies. Firstly, thirty or forty years ago there were a number of telescope manufacturers in both Europe and the USA. Maybe it's an unrecognised gem (although I doubt it) or it's pure rubbish. So either it is new on the market or has been overlooked by amateur astronomers. This said the seems to be little information on the Bresser scope you are considering. Generally, my first instinct with anything branded National Geographic would be, like Bambuko, to run fast in the oposite direction.

Bresser gemini telescope