Editorial Reviews : Meade's DS-70EC refracting telescope offers high-quality optics and easy push-button electronic operation, making it a perfect instrument for the serious beginner. It features a multicoated, achromatic two-element objective lens and precise, smooth altitude and azimuth movements. It includes the Meade handheld electronic controller, which allows for four-speed push-button operation and easy object location and tracking. It also includes Meade's StarNavigator software, which displays more than 10,000 celestial objects for help in locating galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, stars, and planets. Additionally, the telescope comes with a full-length adjustable aluminum tripod. The DS-70EC exhibits Meade's fine attention to detail and quality, from the precision-polished crown and flint optical glass components and contrast-increasing multicoatings, to oversize bearings on both telescope axes that facilitate great precision in tracking. It offers a resolving power of 1.6 arcseconds, a limiting visual magnitude of 11.3, a 250x maximum practical visual power, and a 5mm by 24mm viewfinder.
The DS-70EC is also built to be fully compatible with Meade's Autostar computer controller, for automatic location and tracking of celestial objects.
Buyer Reviews : Good beginner scope (and probably the only scope necessary for a casual observer). Even if used only 3 or 4 times ever, the views of the Moon (lots of craters near where light side transitions to dark) and Saturn (looks like a dot with a ring around it) are worth this amount of money if you never have seen them through a telescope. Its neat to see those things with your own eyes in your own backyard even if they look small (its like looking at the back of an pencil eraser at Jupiter or Saturn), vs looking at pictures in a book. With the motors attached the image holds steady in the wind. It is pretty easy with the motors to hold Saturn in the center field of view and you never have to touch the barrel, just the control pad. This is small enough to carry with one hand from the garage to the backyard. Cons: 70 mm size not large enpugh for deep sky objects (nebula, galaxy), this might limit depth for serious types (who would probably want a size of 150 mm) Finderscope is small and hard to get at to look through. Ok for the bright planets and moon though.
(by Stephen Hussey)
Features/Technical Specs : * 70mm (2.8 inch) aperture; 700mm objective lens focal length * Includes electronic controller for easy push-button object location and tracking * Smooth, precise tracking with altazimuth mounting * 2-element achromatic objective lens with multicoating * Includes full-length, adjustable aluminum tripod
