Not looking good at Meade/Orion ... !

[Jim Franklin]

18 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Might be worthy trying Opticstar for the controller if you can’t find it - they were importing Meade to the U.K. in recent years. 
Like you I also bought a Meade from Farringdon Road - ETX-105. Marvellous optics, but the electronics failed fairly rapidly, and that was 25 years ago!
I can’t see why Skywatcher/Synta would want Meade as well as Celestron, unless it’s to acquire stock and take the brand off the market. I hope it does survive, but it will require lots of investment, and possibly an even cheaper manufacturing base than Mexico. 

I'll keep Opticstar in mind, but there are no 497s on their website - I'll keep an eye out if needed - I might also look at an alternative solution once I defork the tube - making a whole new drive controller using open source software - ASCOM- and a raspberry pi or arduino as an interface to a computer -

Skywatcher may look at Meade to own the rights to the IP so it is not picked up by a third party, they must have a lot of stock that could be repurposed for both the Skywatcher and Celestron brands - the manufacturing facility may also be useful.  

[Louis D]

5 hours ago, Jim Franklin said:

Skywatcher may look at Meade to own the rights to the IP so it is not picked up by a third party

The US government might block the sale to prevent monopolizing all SCT IP being controlled by one company, even if Synta was the highest bidder at auction.  We'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out in the courts.

[iantaylor2uk]

Surely all the parents on SCTs expired years ago (patents only last 20 years)

[globular]

You don't need to be patent protected to be a monopoly - if you're the only (significant) one doing something then monopoly power laws can apply.

[Steve Ward]

Surely Synta are the SCT market leaders anyway (and have been for a while) having Celestron.

Why would they need to burden themselves with the baggage that having the Meade fallout would bring with it.

[bosun21]

I don't see Skywatcher burdening themselves with Meade either. What would they be gaining?

[VNA]

Hello, not surprised at their demise, the technical support was horrible--I still have an Atlas pro not working after having sent it bak twice under warranty on the second try Orion kept the mount for a good 10 month, also a manual mount that was impossible to adjust?
Went there a couple of times and was not impressed?

[Shimrod]

Has there been any definitive news on the fate of Meade? If this was in the UK I'd have expected administrators to have slapped a notice on the website more or less straightaway. Even though the Orion website has gone the Meade website still looks pretty normal to me (although I wouldn't try placing an order!) 

[Louis D]

On 15/08/2024 at 14:38, iantaylor2uk said:

Surely all the parents on SCTs expired years ago (patents only last 20 years)

17 years in the US where the patents would have originally been granted.

At this point, the Meade name itself is the most valuable IP, not any particular product associated with Meade.

[Highburymark]

On 15/08/2024 at 20:38, iantaylor2uk said:

Surely all the parents on SCTs expired years ago (patents only last 20 years)

I believe the patent has also just run out on Coronado’s Richview solar etalon design. This uses a central spacer to produce a uniform etalon gap, while maintaining thermal stability. It’s why the Coronado etalons have a central obstruction, unlike the (below 100mm) Lunt filters and those from Solarscope. With Skywatcher soon to launch a solar Ha scope, it’s possible they are using a similar system to Coronado, maybe taking advantage of the lapsed patent.

[Highburymark]

For info: the 76mm ‘Skywatcher Heliostar’ is now being promoted on a Hong Kong website - astro.promote.hk
 

[Steve Ward]

On 20/08/2024 at 12:14, Highburymark said:

For info: the 76mm ‘Skywatcher Heliostar’ is now being promoted on a Hong Kong website - astro.promote.hk
 

And only £1756.00 converting the 18000 HK$ ... 😊

[globular]

More like £2.1k in UK when our wonderful VAT is included.

[Steve Ward]

35 minutes ago, globular said:

More like £2.1k in UK when our wonderful VAT is included.

Still a lot cheaper than a Lunt 60 , but no doubt the price will get hiked for the UK.

[globular]

Lunt seem to hike for the UK, but not sure SkyWatcher do.  Just the extra VAT we have to swallow.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

On 20/08/2024 at 13:14, Highburymark said:

For info: the 76mm ‘Skywatcher Heliostar’ is now being promoted on a Hong Kong website - astro.promote.hk
 

Claims a bandwidth of less than 0.5 Å, which is in double-stack terrain. More of a chromosphere bandwidth than for prominences

[Steve Ward]

37 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Claims a bandwidth of less than 0.5 Å, which is in double-stack terrain. More of a chromosphere bandwidth than for prominences

I think it's a case of waiting until someone gets hold of one to put through its paces , I just hope it's not another SW product that fails to materialise.

[Highburymark]

3 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Claims a bandwidth of less than 0.5 Å, which is in double-stack terrain. More of a chromosphere bandwidth than for prominences

That was my first thought - why are they marketing it as a prominence scope if it’s 0.5A? Though they wouldn’t be the first solar supplier to claim double stack performance from a single etalon.