Orange Country Register: Celestron Down, Meade Sinking

There's been some discussion of the big story in amateur astronomy over
on Celestron Nexstar Yahoo Group, but I haven't seen anything here,
yet.

Yes, it appears, as many of us feared, that Celestron is just about
down for the count. Meade isn't far behind 'em either, apparently. IOW,
what we were hearing a week ago or so appears all too true.

For more information, please read this article in the _Orange County
Register_:

<http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/04/02/sections/business/business/article_466106.php>

You'll have to "register" to read it, but you can enter anything you
like for the email/username.

There's been some discussion of the subject on my Meade Uncensored
Yahoo Group. Here's an excerpt from what I wrote there this morning:

"I've been expecting both companies to move the last bastion of what
they once were, SCT OTA and fork mount production, off-shore for a long
time. The profit margin has been very low for the SCTs for quite a
while, with the telescopes costing less in real dollars now than they
did 30 years ago. Couple this with
the "features race" between Meade and Celestron, which includes a need
to continually release new models, and you have got a recipe for
disaster.

In this case, "disaster" comes with every market glitch. Bad
economy...post Mars sales slump...and both companies are in deep
doo-doo. I don't think either Meade or Celestron would be able to
weather "post Halley" conditions now.

I do disagree with the article author that Meade's and Celestron's
focus on small "department store" scopes has had "...a negative effect
on quality scopes and turned some novices away from amateur astronomy."
Which scopes has it had a "negative effect" on?
Certainly not either company's SCTs. They are arguably better than
they've ever been. On the department store scopes? Again, negatory,
good buddy. They are certainly no worse, and probably considerably
better, than some of the horrid little things both companies peddled in
the late 80s. The department store
business has been these firms' _savior_. It's a place where they've
found they can at least make a decent profit.

As for Meade buying Celestron, I don't think that would have been a
very good idea for us. Likely Meade would have quickly killed the
Celestron name and products. We'd then have been left with "just Meade"
until somebody came along to challenge 'em. In _some ways_ that might
have been OK--they could have at least priced their scopes
realistically--but IMHO a complete lack of
competition is not a good thing.

Just as is the case with everything else, the SCTs will shortly be
coming out of China. What do we do about this? Well, my next SCT may be
a domestically made MCT. I'd hate to say goodbye to the SCTs I've loved
for so many years, sure. And I certainly have nothing against the
Chinese people. Their success in the telescopes/optics arena (as in
many other things) has been amazing. But there comes a time when, in
our own self-interest, we've got to say _WHOA_!"

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of:_Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Pennie for your thoughts?
    ... I have had this scope, some other Celestron scopes, and several Meade ... 'type' of barrel connector used on the Meade units, ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Orange Country Register: Celestron Down, Meade Sinking
    ... > on Celestron Nexstar Yahoo Group, but I haven't seen anything here, ... > on quality scopes and turned some novices away from amateur astronomy." ... > Certainly not either company's SCTs. ... The department store business has been these firms' _savior_. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Buying an SCT
    ... Both the Meade units, and the Celestrons, use servos. ... 'slot car' motors, and mouse encoders for the position, the latter units ... The Celestron motors are more accurate, and smoother/quieter, ... I have had a number of scopes from both manufacturers. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: tak quality SCT?
    ... >>>After synta bought celestron there were some grumblings about how it ... optically Meade and Celestron already have that quality. ... >the market really is out there for Questar Quality SCTs... ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: OT: Earth Hour
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    (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated)