Meade Instruments 234001 Star Pro AZ 70mm Refracting Telescope and Smart Phone Adapter, Matt Finish

We bought this telescope for astronomy programs for our small Open Space agency. Its relatively small size and light weight have made it easy for us to store and to carry out to programs. Despite its low price and portability, this telescope has provided some great star gazing opportunities. The image quality is good enough to show the rings of Saturn with sharp clarity. It also shows Jupiter and its moons well enough that we can just make out the different colored bands in Jupiter's atmosphere. Looking at the Moon provides an eye popping amount of detail. During the daytime, I was able to see people on the summit of a mountain about four miles away. I think most people would be pleased with what this telescope can do.The slow-motion cables are great and allow fine adjustments to track an object as it moves through the sky. The red dot sight is easy to zero and does its job well. You can even adjust the brightness on the red dot for use during the day or night. The mount is quick and easy to use, but is perhaps a little unstable for the long focal length of this telescope. This is much less of a problem with Meade's other StarPro telescopes with shorter focal lengths (such as the 90mm), so I think they could solve the problem by beefing up the mount accordingly. It doesn't make the telescope unusable by any means, but it does mean the user needs to be careful to let the scope settle down after moving it and to avoid bumping it when looking through it. The tripod is adequate, if a little short and a little flimsy. However, it's hard to imagine making it bigger or sturdier without adding too much more weight, and portability is a big selling point for this scope. The locking wheel on the tripod that secures the accessory tray/cross brace needs a bigger wheel on top. It is hard to get enough traction on it to turn the lock if it is tightly engaged.Bottom line: it's a great scope at a good price. You can spend more and get a 6" or 8" Dobsonian that will have superior optical capabilities, but hauling a 40lb scope around may not be the best option. The Meade StarPro AZ 80mm provides great optics and useful accessories that you can easily carry around with you.

The Meade Instruments StarPro AZ 70mm telescope was incredibly easy to assemble and setup. We were up and running in about 15 minutes from the moment we opened the box. Everything was packaged very securely. The instructions that were included were clear and easy to follow along. The diagram of the telescope and all of its associated parts definitely helped in guiding us through the step-by-step descriptions of the assembly setup.We love gazing into the sky and as first-time telescope owners we found all the controls and instructions to be fairly intuitive. Once we found our bearings through the viewfinder, we started with a tour of the park and its wildlife. We spotted a gaggle of geese walking around and the image was very clear and bright.Still need a bit of practice and more importantly study of our solar system to really venture into the nighttime sky. We saw some stars and the moon (which is going to look great during the next full moon!).The slow motion knobs used to move the scope up and down, and left and right were very smooth and accurate. Those controls and the sturdy tripod helped us quickly get a feel of how to move the telescope without too much trouble.It is definitely nice that Meade include three eye pieces to choose from and a 2x barlow. This provides more than enough power and range of sight to learn your way around the mechanics of using a telescope while getting a crispy clean image. Then as a wonderfully added bonus, a phone adapter was also included!The telescope can be quickly detached from the tripod for easy pack-up and storage. Or to take it on a trip! It is very lightweight and does not take up too much space.What a great piece of machinery and technology! Highly recommended!

The media could not be loaded. As the former owner of a meade lxd75 8” sct UHTC, this scope seems like a kid’s toy in comparison on first impression. Had to sell the lxd75 years ago and been missing the nights of looking at the stars.Honestly, for $200 this is an awesome value for anyone. The optics are actually quite good. With the included eyepieces I was seeing the cloud bands of Jupiter the 1st night. Nothing like the 8” sct but honestly I’m very impressed with the optical tube. Having moved from az to fl the diminished conditions for backyard astronomy are very obvious. Especially with the 90mm aperture but you can’t beat the price! I love this setup because of the portability. Its light and simple. They market this as a kids scope....if i had this thing as a kid, id probably have a 16”er by now...lol. In all seriousness, the only con i see with this setup is the mount. While lightweight and portable, if you plan on doing anything beyond looking at stars aka photos, etc...meade makes a budget eq mount/scope combo that can be fitted with a motor. I rarely get the chance to stargaze anymore so its perfect for me and my spontaneous life. Its also been an adventure with finding objects in the sky. The red dot is mediocre at best but if you are good with a star chart, or better yet, have a star chart app on your phone, you’ll be ok as long as you understand your limitations with the small aperture...you won’t be able to see everything. I took several pics through this scope the first night using the app nightcap. They came out ok but when viewing brighter objects like saturn and Jupiter, the default camera in your phone will probably look better. The vid I included of saturn was filmed with my iphone 7plus with the default camera. While Saturn is over-exposed, through the eyepiece with my eye, i could see the cloud bands and spots! If I were to upgrade the setup the first thing id get is a tracking eq mount.

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Realmente encantada com esta compra. Apesar de ter ainda muito pouco conhecimento da esfera celeste, o céu noturno ganhou outra dimensão pra mim com este telescópio. Recomendo muito para iniciantes em astronomia, como eu.

It arrived quickly and was easy to set up will Write another review on performance once I've used it a bit more, I like the fact its not tacky and plastic I am happy with my choiceUpdate.So last night I had about an hour of clear skies so I used it to my advantage,Managed to watch a meteor shower tried out the different scopes to see what they all do, am very pleased.