Editorial Reviews : Meade equips their ETX-70AT telescope with their exclusive multicoated, air-spaced achromatic objective lenses to give you razor-sharp images of both astronomical and terrestrial subjects. Though similar to the Meade ETX-60AT, this telescope has a 36-percent increased light collecting power for significantly brighter, more highly resolved images, no matter what you're observing. The ETX-70AT is also extremely portable, making it ideal for any observing location from your backyard to a mountaintop. You can place the telescope on any flat surface and, after a quick 30-second alignment of its computer with the sky, you are ready to start observing. Even if you are a novice astronomer, the ETX-70AT makes it easy to locate and explore the planets, asteroids, and comets, as well as nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, and hundreds of other deep-space objects--all with just the push of a button. With the exception of Pluto, all of the planets are easily visible. You can study Saturn and its ring system, the primary cloud belts of Jupiter and its four major satellites, the Moonlike phases of Mercury and Venus, prominent features on Mars, and the starlike images of the distant planets Uranus and Neptune.
Under good atmospheric conditions, many observable objects take on additional structure not normally observable in the 60mm model: Jupiter's cloud belts are easier to see, additional satellites of Saturn can be seen, and the whispy filaments of the Orion Nebula can be studied more accurately. Even the Moon stands out more prominently; craters, mountain ranges, and fault lines are all easily visible in stark detail. This model comes with a Meade 882 tripod.
Buyer Reviews : This is a great little telescope for the money. Two previous reviewers (who gave it a low rating) had quality control problems with it. I've had none with mine but I have had 3 of them with my Meade 4' refractor. The Meade customer service people were wonderful in correcting these problems, but it seems their quality control could be better.
Optically, this is an achromatic refractor with a very fast focal ratio. That means it's good for viewing extended objects like star clusters, Milky Way star clouds, large nebulae, pretty conjunctions, etc. Dark skies help alot -- the darker the better of course -- but good clear rural skies in Ohio are plenty wonderful. It doesn't have the aperture for dimmer objects but the brighter Messier objects, for example (and there's plenty of them!) are great. It isn't at its best on planets and the Moon but you can definitely see Saturn's rings, the phases of Mercury and Venus, Jupiter's moons and belts (the red spot is difficult at best) and the Moon simply can't help but look wonderful in any telescope!
The Autostar is really good. It's best when you align it carefully: use the north star to point it to north and use a bubble level to level the tripod and tube. You can find brighter Messier objects, comets, asteroids, the planet Neptune, etc, so easily! (But of course not Pluto, quasars, black holes and some other ridiculous objects in the Autostar database.) And you get better at aligning it as you practice. Be sure to check out the 'synchronize' feature (in the owner's manual under the 'enter key').
As others have pointed out, the focus mechanism is bad, and the tripod is not terribly sturdy. Together they make higher magnifications (which are not optically optimum either) just about impossible. But 50X is still reasonable with a good 7mm orthoscopic eyepiece. Also a good 32mm eyepiece will eliminate the need to buy a finder and give you wonderful wide views. A dew shield is a must in Ohio (reduces glare too).
It ain't a Televue, it's true, but for the price, this scope is hard to beat.
(by David B. Burton)
Features/Technical Specs : * Exclusive multicoated, air-spaced achromatic objective lenses * Razor-sharp images of both astronomical and terrestrial subjects * Extremely portable at only 6.8 pounds * Telescope can be used on any flat surface * Meade 882 tripod included
