Refractor Homepage Binoculars and telescopes

The Bresser Messier AR-80/640 Nano Refractor Telescope is a complete beginner’s telescope. It’s a 3-inch achromatic refractor that’s bundled with everything a newcomer needs to get started: a manual altaz mount, a red dot finder, a star diagonal and a 26mm Plössl eyepiece.

Its 3-inch aperture is more than adequate to allow observations of a wide range of celestial objects, its altaz mount is intuitive to use and the whole thing is a doddle to set up.

Achromatic doublet lenses, like the ones in this scope, are made from two types of glass that work together to minimise chromatic aberrations – an unwanted effect that produces coloured halos around bright objects.

More expensive optics have a number of special coatings applied to reduce reflections and increase light throughput, but this lens assembly has only one coating of magnesium fluoride (MgF2) – the minimum required.

The inside of the seamless aluminium optical tube is nicely blackened, though and has a single baffle to help reduce unwanted internal reflections.