Review on Meade Instruments – Infinity 70mm Aperture, Portable Refracting Telescope for Kids & Beginners – Multiple Eyepieces & Accessories Included - Adjustable AZ Manual Mount for Astronomy by Kevin Mariappan

I bought this telescope for my wife. It had to meet the following criteria: easy to use, not too heavy, easy to use, works well and. Easy to use. So, here's the good news. It's really easy to use. My wife opened the box, assembled it herself, and we carried it out and set up a red dot finder in minutes using a smokestack a few blocks away. We pulled it out the same night and this is what we found. It's crazy that the optics on a telescope in this price range are so sharp, and yet they are. The fact that it has slow motion controls that work really well on a telescope of this price is also insane, and yet here we are again. We saw the Moon, Venus, Mars and Saturn that night before the clouds cleared. We couldn't photograph deep sky objects because we were in the backyard and the light pollution is terrible. To do this, you need to move away from the bright city lights. We could see Saturn's rings very clearly so it was a thumbs up. The mount was pretty solid. It's not the best and there is some vibration, but it settles down fairly quickly and if you work on the slow motion controllers a bit you'll have a great viewing experience. The eyepieces are a little above average, but not much to say. I would also recommend buying a filter to see the moon as it can be too bright. I also bought a mount for my wife to connect her phone to the eyepiece. This was a nice addition if you have young children who can't stand still while looking through a telescope. All in all, this has to be one of the best entry-level telescopes I've ever used. This is of course not an equatorial mount. Honestly, for beginners, this is the right choice. It just means you have to rely on slow motion controllers to keep things on track. The red dot finder works quite well and is adjustable. Pro tip: don't forget to turn it off when you're done. This is very easy and saves you the hassle of buying new batteries. I definitely recommend this telescope. I plan to order another one for my brother for Christmas. My personal opinion is that Barlow lenses are the weak link in a telescope. Once you get used to it, buy a pair of better 1.25 inch eyepieces. Or even a decent adjustable eyepiece (don't tell anyone I told you that, they'll yell at me because the snoopers will sniff), but they're fun because they do the work of four or five eyepieces and you don't have to have them change while having fun. A good eyepiece improves your telescope significantly. Trust me on that. Clear sky!