Telescope Comparison
Bresser Messier N-150/750 vs Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P
One finds objects for you. The other makes you learn the sky — and gives you more aperture in return.
First light
Bresser · 150mm · £229
The sky-learner's equatorial scope
- 150mm newtonian reflector on a manual equatorial mount
- Good for: Moon, planets, bright star clusters and nebulae
- Setup includes rough polar alignment before observing — more steps than a simple alt-az
- Mount axes feel counterintuitive at first; users find they become natural after several sessions
- Keeps the door open for adding tracking motors and moving into astrophotography later
Sky-Watcher · 130mm · £349
The guided beginner's telescope
- 130mm newtonian reflector on a computerised mount with motorised tracking
- Good for: Moon, planets, bright nebulae, star clusters, and deep-sky objects
- GoTo system finds any object in its database after initial star alignment — no star atlas needed
- Tracking motors keep objects centred as Earth rotates — useful above 100×, essential for photography
- 4.8kg total — requires a fixed garden spot or car transport
The full picture
The numbers that separate these two scopes — and what they mean at the eyepiece.
Aperture
Bresser Messier N-150/750 gathers 1.3× more light. On bright targets — Moon, Saturn, Jupiter — you won't notice. On fainter targets — dim galaxies, faint globular clusters — the gap is real.
Focal length
Bresser Messier N-150/750's longer focal length reaches higher magnification with the same eyepiece — better reach for planetary detail. Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P's shorter focal length gives a wider true field — better for large open clusters and extended nebulae.
Focal ratio
Same focal ratio — the same eyepiece gives equivalent magnification and true field in both scopes.
Mount type
Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P adds GoTo — it finds any target in its database after alignment. Bresser Messier N-150/750 requires manual navigation.
Weight (OTA)
Similar optical tube weight. Any portability difference between these setups comes from the mount, not the tube itself.
Optical design
Both are Newtonian reflectors — the same optical formula. Any performance difference comes from collimation quality, focal ratio, and eyepiece choice, not the design itself.
At the eyepiece
| Target | Bresser Messier N-150/750 | Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P |
|---|---|---|
| Planets | ||
| Moon | Excellent 150mm resolves craterlets, rilles, and mountain shadows with crisp detail; f/5 handles high magnification well on lunar targets | Excellent 130mm resolves fine crater detail, rilles, and mountain shadows; GoTo tracking keeps it centred as you explore at high magnification |
| Saturn | Good Rings clearly defined, Cassini Division visible in steady seeing at 150–200x; focal length of 750mm is adequate but not ideal for high-power planetary work | Good Rings clearly defined, Cassini Division visible in good seeing; 650mm focal length benefits from a Barlow for more image scale |
| Jupiter | Good Two main cloud belts and GRS visible; 150mm shows some detail in the equatorial bands at 150x+ | Good Two main equatorial belts, GRS transits, and all four Galilean moons; a Barlow lens helps push useful magnification higher |
| Mars | Good Disc and polar cap visible at opposition; some dark surface markings detectable in good seeing | Moderate Small orange disc at opposition with hints of polar cap and dark albedo features; 130mm at 650mm focal length limits surface detail |
Deep sky | ||
| Orion Nebula (M42) | Excellent Bright nebulosity with extensive structure visible; Trapezium resolved; f/5 gives good wide-field context | Excellent 130mm aperture at f/5 gives a bright, wide-field view showing the Trapezium, nebula wings, and surrounding gas structure |
| Andromeda Galaxy (M31) | Excellent 750mm focal length and 150mm aperture show the core, dust lane, and outer halo in a wide-field eyepiece | Excellent 650mm focal length frames the full core and inner halo comfortably; 130mm aperture hints at dust lanes under dark skies |
| Open clusters | Excellent Wide field at low power frames clusters like the Double Cluster and Pleiades beautifully | Excellent Wide true field at 650mm shows the Pleiades, Double Cluster, and M35 as resolved sprays of stars with room to spare |
| Globular clusters | Good 150mm begins to resolve stars at the edges of M13 and M22; cores remain granular but not fully resolved | Moderate M13 and M92 appear granular with hints of individual stars at the edges, but the core remains unresolved at 130mm |
| Faint galaxies | Good 150mm pulls in galaxies across Virgo and Leo as defined smudges; brighter examples like M81/M82 show shape and contrast | Moderate M81/M82 pair visible as distinct elongated smudges; fainter galaxies are detectable but featureless at 130mm |
| Milky Way / wide field | Good 750mm focal length is slightly long for sweeping panoramas but still delivers rich star fields at low power | Good 650mm focal length gives pleasant star-field sweeping; wider than most GoTo scopes but not a true wide-field instrument |
Other | ||
| Double stars | Excellent 150mm aperture resolves sub-arcsecond pairs; f/5 is forgiving enough with quality eyepieces, though less clean than f/10+ refractors | Good Albireo, Mizar, and wider doubles split cleanly; the fast f/5 ratio is less forgiving on tight sub-arcsecond pairs than a longer focal ratio scope |
| Astrophotography (planetary) | Good 150mm at 750mm focal length works well with a planetary camera and Barlow; no tracking needed for short video captures | Moderate 130mm captures reasonable detail in lucky-imaging video stacks; a 2× Barlow brings effective focal length to 1300mm for better image scale |
| Astrophotography (deep sky) | Not recommended The included EQ mount has no motor drive or tracking — long exposures are not possible without upgrading to at least a single-axis motor | Moderate Alt-az GoTo tracks well but introduces field rotation, limiting exposures to roughly 10 seconds; suitable for EAA and live stacking, not traditional long-exposure imaging |
The real tradeoff
Both scopes are capable. The question is which one fits the way you actually observe.
Bresser Messier N-150/750
- You'll spend five minutes assembling the tube on the EQ mount and another few polar-aligning before you observe anything — but once you're set up, the 150mm aperture pulls in noticeably more light than the 130P, showing more structure in galaxies like M81/M82 and resolving the edges of globulars like M13 into individual stars rather than texture.
- You'll be manually tracking objects by turning the slow-motion cables, and at 150x or above they'll drift out of view in under a minute if you stop — so every observing session is a quiet rhythm of nudging and looking, which teaches you the sky but punishes inattention.
- You'll discover that the dual-speed Crayford focuser is genuinely excellent at this price and makes the difference between 'close enough' and 'nailed it' on planetary detail — it's the kind of component you'd normally only find on scopes costing twice as much.
Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P
- You'll pull the scope out of a cupboard, set it on a table, connect your phone, and be looking at Saturn within ten minutes — but you'll immediately notice that finding a genuinely stable table matters, because every wobble translates straight into the eyepiece.
- You'll hop between thirty objects in a single session because the GoTo does the finding and the mount does the tracking — on a weeknight with limited time, you'll see far more of the sky than you would manually hunting with the Bresser, even though each individual view is slightly less detailed through the smaller aperture.
- You'll pay £120 more than the Bresser and get 20mm less aperture — what you're really buying is the motor-driven tracking and automated object location, which means you spend your time observing rather than searching and nudging.
The dark side
Every scope has a personality. Here’s where each one gets difficult.
Bresser
Bresser Messier N-150/750
The included EQ mount has no motor drive, so long-exposure astrophotography is off the table without purchasing a separate motor upgrade, and even then reported flexure and vibration with camera gear attached limit what you can realistically achieve.
The f/5 focal ratio demands regular collimation — it's far less forgiving of mirror misalignment than a slower f/8 scope, and you'll notice degraded star shapes quickly if you skip it after transporting the tube.
The tube and equatorial mount together are bulky enough that this is a multi-trip carry from the house — there's no grab-and-go convenience here, and the polar alignment step adds setup time every session.
Sky-Watcher
Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P
No tripod is included — you need a separate sturdy table or pier, and a flimsy camping table or garden furniture will transmit vibrations that ruin the view, especially at higher magnifications.
The alt-az GoTo mount introduces field rotation during exposures, hard-limiting useful astrophotography subs to roughly ten seconds before star trailing becomes visible — this is a visual-only scope in practice.
The open tube design leaves the primary mirror exposed to dew, dust, and stray light, so you'll likely need to add a light shroud or dew shield to get the best contrast on faint deep-sky targets.
Which is right for you?
Two different buyers. Two different right answers.
The sky-learner's equatorial scope
Bresser · Bresser Messier N-150/750
You want the most aperture per pound and you're willing to work for it. You don't mind spending ten minutes on setup and polar alignment because you plan to sit at the eyepiece for an hour or more, slowly working through deep-sky targets under dark skies. You're on a tight budget — under £250 — and you'd rather have a bigger mirror and a better focuser than electronic conveniences. You might be curious about basic astrophotography of the Moon or bright planets down the line, and you accept that the mount will need a motor upgrade before that's realistic.
The guided beginner's telescope
Sky-Watcher · Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P
You want to observe, not troubleshoot. You value short sessions on weeknights where you can be looking at a target within minutes, and you'd rather the scope find objects for you than spend your limited clear-sky time star-hopping. You're a beginner still learning the constellations, or you're sharing this scope with family members who need the GoTo to stay engaged. You accept that you're trading 20mm of aperture and £120 for tracking, automation, and genuine portability — and you're fine with that because you know a scope that gets used beats a scope that stays in the shed.
Our verdict
The Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P finds every object in its database after alignment — you spend the session observing, not navigating. The Bresser Messier N-150/750 asks you to navigate yourself but gives you more aperture for the same money.
If learning the night sky sounds like part of the fun, choose the Bresser Messier N-150/750 — the extra aperture is a genuine bonus. If you want to spend your evenings observing rather than navigating, the Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P is the more honest choice for most beginners. If I had to choose for someone starting out and unsure: the Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P — find things first, learn the sky later.
Bresser Messier N-150/750
View Bresser Messier N-150/750 →Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P
View Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P →Deep field: Full specifications
Every data point, for those who want to go further.
Full specifications
Fields highlighted in blue or amber indicate the better value for that spec. Data is manufacturer-stated and may vary.
How much can it see?
| Spec | Bresser Messier N-150/750 | Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P |
|---|---|---|
Apertureⓘ The most important spec — bigger = more light = better views | 150mm | 130mm |
Focal Length Longer = more magnification potential | 750mm | 650mm |
Focal Ratio Lower f-number = wider field of view; higher = more magnification per eyepiece | f/5 | f/5 |
Optical Design The type of optics — each design has different strengths | Newtonian Reflector | Newtonian Reflector |
Coatings Better coatings = more light transmission through the optics | Parabolic primary mirror, fully coated | Parabolic primary mirror with multi-coated optics |
How do you point it?
| Spec | Bresser Messier N-150/750 | Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P |
|---|---|---|
Mount Type The mechanical system that holds and moves the telescope | Equatorial | GoTo (Computerised) |
GoToⓘ Computer-controlled pointing — finds any of thousands of objects automatically | ||
Trackingⓘ Motor keeps objects centred as the Earth rotates — essential for astrophotography |
The focuser
| Spec | Bresser Messier N-150/750 | Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P |
|---|---|---|
Focuser Size 2" accepts wider eyepieces and gives better low-power views | 2" | 1.25" |
Focuser Type Rack-and-pinion is standard; Crayford and dual-speed are smoother | Dual-speed Crayford (2" with 1.25" adapter) | Rack and pinion |
Size & weight
| Spec | Bresser Messier N-150/750 | Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P |
|---|---|---|
OTA Weightⓘ Optical tube only — useful for comparing mount load capacity | 5kg | 4.8kg |
Total Weightⓘ Full setup including mount — this is what you lug to the car | 13.5kg | 4.8kg |
Tube Length | 670mm | — |
Tube Material | Steel | Steel (collapsible FlexTube) |
What's in the box?
| Spec | Bresser Messier N-150/750 | Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P |
|---|---|---|
Eyepieces Included eyepieces — more is better, but quality matters more than quantity | 25mm and 10mm eyepieces | 25mm and 10mm Super eyepieces |
Finder Scope Helps you locate areas of the sky before switching to the main eyepiece | 8x50 optical finder | Red dot finder |
Diagonal Tilts the eyepiece 90° for comfortable viewing — useful on refractors |
Smart features
| Spec | Bresser Messier N-150/750 | Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P |
|---|---|---|
Built-in Camera Records and stacks images automatically — no separate camera needed | ||
App Controlled | ||
WiFi | ||
Battery Included |
Blue highlight: Bresser Messier N-150/750 advantage · Amber highlight: Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P advantage · Greyed cells: equal or subjective.