Meade Instruments
- For other uses, see Meade (disambiguation).
| Company type | Public (Nasdaq: MEAD) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Manufacturing |
| Founded | 1972 |
| Headquarters | Irvine, California, USA |
Key people | Steve Muellner, CEO ($ 275,962 Annual Pay) Robert Davis, Senior VP ($268,500 Annual Pay) Donald Finkle, Senior VP ($117,654 Annual Pay) Paul Ross, CFO Steven Murdock, Director ($147,117 Annual Pay)[1][2] |
| Products | Optical / mechanical devices |
| Website | http://www.meade.com |
Meade Instruments Corporation (aka Meade) is a company based in Irvine, California, that manufactures and imports telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, CCD cameras and telescope accessories for the consumer market.
Origins and history
Founded in 1972 by John Diebel, Meade started out as a mail order seller of small refracting telescopes and telescope accessories. He soon branched out into larger reflecting telescopes and in 1978 ventured into the Schmidt-Cassegrain that up to that time had been dominated by Celestron Corporation.[3] Meade has continued grow to the point of arguably being the worlds largest telescope manufacturer. Meade has a long history of litigation with other companies over infringement of their patents, particularly with its once bitter rival Celestron.
Products
Products (as of 2007) produced by Meade include[4][5]:
- Binoculars
- Microscopes
- Spotting scopes
- Achromatic Refractors (5 and 6-inch)
- Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes (8 to 12 inches – LX-90 models only)
- Schmidt-Newtonian telescopes (6 to 10 inches).
- Modified Ritchey-Chrétien LX-200R series (8 to 16 inches) and RCX400 series (10 to 20-inches), the latter either on a fork alt-az/equatorial mount (10 to 16 inches) or an observatory-class German equatorial mount (16 and 20-inch models only)
- ETX series Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes ranging in size from 90mm to 125mm. (see: Meade ETX telescope)
- "Truss-tube" Dobsonian telescopes (currently 8, 10, 12 and a 16-inch model).
- mySKY, a multi-media GPS device guiding users to the sky.
Many Meade telescopes come on alt-azimuth and equatorial mounts with computerized locating of astronomical objects as well as mounts that will aim themselves at any given object (a technology commonly called "GoTo").
Other accessories produced by Meade include the series 5000 eyepieces that are comparable in construction to those of Chester, New York-based Tele Vue Optical's "Nagler" (82-degree field of view), "Panoptic" (68-degree field of view), and "Radian" (60-degree field of view) eyepieces.
Meade also sells under the "Meade" name imported low to moderate cost reflectors and refractors intended for the beginner retail market.
In 2004 Meade acquired Coronado Filters, who produce an extensive range of specialty telescopes that allow views of the sun in Hydrogen-Alpha, and more recently Calcium K line wavelengths.
In November, 2006, three unnamed plaintiffs, including a manufacturer of traditional Ritchey-Chrétien telescopes, filed a civil lawsuit against Meade, several dealerships, and yet-to-be-named individuals in federal court (New York Southern District). The complaint is against Meade advertising their RCX400 and LX200R models as "Ritchey-Chrétien". The plaintiffs claim these models do not use true Ritchey-Chrétien optics and therefore Meade and its retailers are committing false advertising infringing on the plaintiff's market.[6]
Financial problems
Meade has had financial problems in the past and has survived with the help of its founder, John Diebel purchasing back the company.[7] However, Meade in the past few years has had run into another round of financial woes, since Diebel sold the company again. The current CEO since May 2006, Steve Muellner[8] has announced various bad news for the company since he has had the lead role for Meade. Meade's Irvine, California manufacturing plant will close and move to Mexico as well as a majority of the administrative positions cut.[9][10] Meade's customer service line has also been affected by shorter operating hours and the elimination of the callback option .[11][12] Meade is also looking at other options for the uncertain future of the company.[13][14]
References
- ^ http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=MEAD
- ^ http://stocks.us.reuters.com/stocks/officersDirectors.asp?symbol=MEAD.O&WTmodLOC=C4-Officers-5
- ^ http://www.meadescopes.info/index.html
- ^ http://www.meade.com
- ^ http://www.meadescopes.net/
- ^ http://tomsastroblog.com/?p=924
- ^ http://www.company7.com/meade/history.html#JReturns
- ^ http://stocks.us.reuters.com/stocks/officersDirectors.asp?symbol=MEAD.O&WTmodLOC=C4-Officers-5
- ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSWNAS001220071101
- ^ http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/meade-instruments-announces-further/n20071101164909990046
- ^ http://www.meade.com/support/contact.html
- ^ Meade customer service phone line
- ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSWNAS922320071030
- ^ http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=MEAD