Customer Reviews

Meade 20220 Ngc-70tc Self Guided Altazimuth Refractor Telescope - Silver

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Meade NGC-70TC is a great starter scope, even with all the bad hype people have said about. The scope is a f/10 refractor, which means false color is minimized, (the only time I noticed any purple glow was when I was looking at the moon).

When you have a small scope like this planets and rich field deep sky objects are good targets. A few of the really amazing objects are the Pleiades Cluster, Caldwell 013 (NGC 457), and the Double Cluster, (use the 25 mm eyepiece). With this scope I saw 2 bands on Jupiter. Please be aware objects will not look like they do in the books or on the internet.

The "goto" is really just digital setting circles, in that it will tell you where to point the telescope at to see the object. This worked fairly well with the exception of originally aligning the telescope. You will need a star chart (or a computer with the included software) to make sure of the star you are suppose to align on. My girlfriend who has never used a telescope before learned how to use it on the second night of use, (now she has viewed 23 of the messier objects and is working on the other 87 objects with this scope).

As I have stated in my title this is a great scope as long as you understand what you are getting. If you are looking for a scope that will teach you where stuff is at in the night sky, this is the scope for you. If you are looking for a scope that does all the thinking for you then you need to look at Meade's new ETX-LS, (the review will soon follow).

Thanks and may your sky's be clear.
Mat P.

The Meade NGC 70-TC is a very good starter scope. Very easy to assemble in the first place. took me about fifteen minutes to put it in place as I'd already done the same for a Meade RB-60 (That model is awesome for starters!!!)The use of electronics in this scope was a bit unnecessary although I'm sure that first timers would love to fiddle with it. The arrangement of the electronics is a bit flimsy though. The optics is very good for an amateur to just start and learn about the night sky.

Dont expect to get a close view of the deep space objects and stuff as the ads claim. The maximum you can view with this scope is Saturn's rings and Titan. Jupiter is also quite clear. I was pleasantly surprised that the moon was very very clear through this scope with the shadows around the craters seen clearly.

The altazimuth arrangement was a bit loose at first but watching the bundled dvd was of great help to help in troubleshooting and adjusting.Overall, this is a good starter scope.

My 5 stars is relative to the fact that we paid $[...] for this scope. For the money it was a great value! It delivered the WOW from our 6 year old grandson. We we able to set up very quickly and great some close ups of the moon right away.

When you are reading the box for the NGC70 (with the obligatory sales person staring over your shoulder) you get the idea this has some sort of computerized control mechanism to guide the telescope to various point in the sky. Both the sales guy and I, after reading the online specs & the box, we were of the mind that this was so... NOT!
This is, simply put, a "Dumb" telescope. It has no motors, no computer controlled anything. It simply tells you after a supposedly "simple" setup that it can "help show you where objects are in the sky." It is up to you to actually find them. Manually I might add. You literally have to move the body of the telescope and then (if you ever get it close to anything worth seeing in this crude way) use the little thumb wheels to move it slowly to where you want it.
The big problems are the telescope movement itself is VERY, VERY sensitive to touch of any kind. So much so that even just placing you eye over the eyepiece causes the damn thing to move away from what you where looking at. Even after tightening it (Vert & Horz screws) as much as I feasibly could, it still just moved wherever it wanted to at fairly easy touches. If you tighten it so it does not move easily, you cannot use the thumb screws to make the micro adjustments necessary to keep the object in view.
This telescope is a total waste of time and money. It was on sale under a "no return" policy at a local photo store, so I am stuck with it. Lessons learned.
The only good thing about this unit is the eye pieces are high quality 1.25" Plossl. The viewing quality appears to be quite good, but I was only able to look at objects like the Moon since I could not get the scope to stay still long enough to view anything else.
I am going to go look at other brands now. Never will I consider Meade ever again...

If you honestly expected a $200 telescope to move by itself you're quite dull. And "manually" operating a telescope is not "crude", it's the way it has been done for 400 years. Before computers, half the fun of using a telescope was finding things for yourself, and having the feeling of exploration and achievement. Not just lazily sitting there entering in information so a computer and a robot can move a telescope for you. Really now people, quit being so lax and stop expecting so much. Thanks for the entertainment! :-D