Meade Instruments
| Meade Instruments Corporation | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1972 |
| Seat |
Irvine , United States
|
| management | Peter Ni ( CEO ) |
| Number of employees | 250 (as of February 29, 2008) |
| Branch | Optical industry |
| Website | www.meade.com |
Meade Instruments is an American manufacturer of astronomical telescopes and accessories. The program primarily includes catadioptric telescopes of the Schmidt-Cassegrain and Maksutov types , as well as Newtonian mirror telescopes . Refractors are also offered.
History of the company
Beginnings
The company was founded in Irvine in 1972 as a one-man business with $ 2500 starting capital. Initially, the business consisted of mail order small lens telescopes . From 1973, the Meade program included orthoscopic and Kellner eyepieces . Shortly afterwards, Meade presented various types of filters and other telescope accessories. In 1977 Meade manufactured the first Newtonian mirror telescopes with a primary mirror diameter of 6 or 8 inches. The telescopes were mounted on German mounts and were a surprising sales success.
1980s
After three years of development, the first Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes (abbreviation SC ) came on the market in 1980 . Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes are compact catadioptric mirror telescopes , i. H. Reflector telescopes with at least one lens . This design had previously been marketed almost exclusively by the American company Celestron . From the beginning, the installation of the Schmidt-Cassegrains on a parallactic fork mount was typical , with a synchronous motor for tracking in the base of the fork . In the 1980s, Meade developed quartz-controlled worm gear drives, which were included in the higher-end model series LX3, LX5 and LX6 as an alternative to the synchronous drive . Then two-axis drives and digital pitch circles with optical encoders were introduced. A preliminary high point were computer-aided digital partial circles, which contained astronomical objects and showed the observer the way to the correct coordinates in the sky with the help of a cross made of light-emitting diodes .
1990s
After Celestron had already presented its first fully automatic model, the “Compustar”, in 1992 Meade also launched fully computer-controlled telescopes from the successful LX200 series. In 1994 Meade manufactured the first mass-produced 16-inch SC computer telescope.
In Germany Meade products were until the early 1990s, the Cosmos service in Stuttgart sold . Meade has been represented in Germany since 1994 by the exclusive distributor ASTROCOM GmbH, which handed over the wholesale business to Meade Europe GmbH in 2000. Since 1997 Meade has been a public company listed on the New York NASDAQ .
2000 until today
The best-selling Meade telescope was the LX200ACF (successor to the LX200GPS) in 2008. The optics were initially advertised as a modified Ritchey-Chrétien-Cassegrain system due to their imaging properties, but outwardly resembles a conventional Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. It is available with various optical tubes between 8 and 16 inches in aperture. In addition, a new model series with the designation RCX400 and optics with a 10 to 20 inch aperture has been introduced. After a lawsuit, ended with a settlement, about the justification of the term Advanced Ritchey-Chrétien for this type of telescope, Meade now sells these telescopes under the names LX200ACF and LX400ACF. The abbreviation ACF stands for Advanced Coma Free , as this construction has a significantly lower coma compared to the Schmidt-Cassegrain construction .
In 2009, Meade Instruments' subsidiary Meade Europe was sold to Bresser GmbH to improve the financial situation . As part of Bresser, Meade products will continue to be sold under the Meade name.
In 2013 Meade was sold to the Chinese optics manufacturer Ningbo Sunny Electronic Co., Ltd. (Sunny for short) sold after negotiations with another major Chinese optics manufacturer, Jinghua Optics & Electronics Co. Ltd. (JOC), had come a long way.
Individual evidence
- ^ Meade appoints new president , February 4, 2015
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from November 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?ref=rss&d=158467
- ↑ Astronomy: Meade completes merger
- ↑ Astrotreff: Meade sold to Jinghua
