Meade have a new owner

[Cornelius Varley]

Orion Telescopes and Binoculars have bought Meade

Orion Telescopes & Binoculars Purchases Meade - Sky & Telescope - Sky & Telescope (skyandtelescope.org)

[CraigT82]

Good news.

That is interesting about the price fixing lawsuit Orion filed against Chinese manufactures in 2019. Wonder if that is part of the reason Celestron prices jumped up a couple of years ago

Edited June 2, 2021 by CraigT82

[johninderby]

Orion US stuff is overpriced in the UK so will Meade prices follow suit? Wonder what changes will be made to the Meade lineup?

[Chris]

I'm glad the Meade brand has been rescued, it was very sad when they filed for bankruptcy. It will be interesting to see what happens

[garryblueboy]

Glad it’s been saved 

[Skyline]

Still the old stuff was the best. My old 8” LX10 optics much better then present mass produced optics.

[ringz]

As far as I'm concerned Meade got their just desserts and I didn't mourn their passing for an instant.

[Cyril]

For years meade were reponsible for price fixing, especially in Europe, buying a meade telescope in the UK was expensive, a direct conversion  from dollars to pounds pushed the prices up astromomically.   We had a local dealer that dropped Meade's prices and Meade dropped them!

[johninderby]

Think it will be hard for Meade to rebuild their reputation in the EU and UK. Meade hardly ever gets a mention now when discussing a new scope purchase on SGL but who knows after a few years ownership by Orion USA things might change. 🤔

[John]

I wonder if FLO will ever stock Meade

I've owned a few Meade products over the years but none have really impressed me that much.

 

[Stu]

8 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Think it will be hard for Meade to rebuild their reputation in the EU and UK. Meade hardly ever gets a mention now when discussing a new scope purchase on SGL but who knows after a few years ownership by Orion USA things might change. 🤔

I don’t know why but I don’t associate Meade with consistent high quality. I’ve looked through an ETX125 once at Saturn and it gave an excellent image, but I’m not sure I would buy one of their larger scopes. As said, it’s one of those irrational things, no particular basis for it so would like to be proved wrong!

[Skyline]

Meade telescopes were successful with their LX range also with their 5000 triplets their optics were second to none.

I have no sympathy for Meade. I still remember the very biased opinions which BC&F had once when visiting their faringdon showroom in London.

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by Skyline