SCTs are made of gold?

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, johninderby said:

They were bought by Orion USA and are now a seperate division of Orion and will continue to trade as Meade.

 

Not quite accurate.  Meade was failing financially when it was bought by Ningbo Sunny in 2013.  As a result of an antitrust lawsuit against NS (and several other companies that settled before trial) brought by Orion USA for suppressing competition and conspiring to fix the prices of consumer telescopes in the U.S., NS lost and then was found to be acting in bad faith (transferring cash out of the country to avoid paying the settlement when explicitly ordered not to, etc.).  NS then had Meade declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy to avoid paying the settlement amount.  To partially recover the amount of the court ordered settlement ($16.8 million), the Meade brand was awarded to Orion USA by the courts.

Orion USA owns the Meade brand, but never actually bought it.

I have no idea which Chinese/Taiwanese optical firm Orion is contracting with to manufacture Meade SCTs now.

[newbie alert]

When I bought my 8 inch sct they was £819.. now they're £1299.00 For the same xlt model!

I checked this as someone was selling a used one for the same price I bought my new one for..