I bought this low-budget 70mm refractor in order to have a low-cost/light-weight travel scope to use away from home on holidays and also to use as a solar-scope (with the addition of a threaded glass solar-filter from Scopetronix)

The scope is available at very low cost in the US (typically $300) and came with "free" tripod, hard carry case, electronic eyepiece and for $40 a further two eyepieces and a 2x Barlow). You can't really find fault with so much equipment at that price!

The ETX-70 is an Autostar telescope and compared to the LX-200 classic handset it is MUCH easier to use (a bit like upgrading from DOS to Windows in ease of use).

First light was a view of 1st Q Moon followed by a sky tour, even with very hurried 2-star alignment the ETX put each object easily in the FOV and tracking was good. Hopefully this will improve further with a better power supply than the 6xAA cells and with drive training.

I have also now done some imaging of Jupiter using the Vesta webcam - reasonable results for such a cheap setup but of course no match for the LX-200.

A couple of useful ETX-70 links: