Meade Telescopes
Meade Dealer / Meade Telescopes
Astronomics has carried Meade Telescopes since 1980. Meade Instruments began business in 1972 as a mail-order supplier of small refracting telescopes with an initial capital of only $2500. Starting on the kitchen table of a single-room apartment and operating from a post office box, the one-person business grew slowly. Meade sales that first year were just under $8000. However, Meade quickly found that there was an increasing demand for quality telescope accessories, a demand that was going largely unmet. In 1973 Meade added lines of orthoscopic and Kellner eyepieces, followed rapidly by a group of precision rack and pinion focusers, viewfinders, filters, camera adapters, and other accessories.
In 1977 Meade Instruments produced its first in-house manufactured telescopes, the Meade Models 628 and 826 6” and 8” reflecting telescopes. After three years of development, Meade Instruments introduced their first Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, the 8” 2080, in 1980. By 1986, Meade Instruments was considered by many to be the largest manufacturer of serious telescopes in the world. By 1995, in virtually every country in the world where serious telescopes are sold, more Meade telescopes were sold than all competing telescope models combined.
The list of Meade innovations is impressive: the first 8” Schmidt-Cassegrain to include a worm-gear drive (1980); commercial Schmidt-Cassegrains to include integrated electronic drive systems (Meade LX3’s, 1984); permanently-programmed periodic error correction software (Meade Smart Drive, 1990); apochromatic refractors with automatic slewing and go-to capability (1992); fully computerized observatory-class Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (Meade 16” LX200, 1994); intermediate-level telescopes with automatic slewing and go-to capability (Meade Digital Electronic Series, 1999); ultra-high transmission optical coatings for commercial catadioptric telescopes (Meade UHTC group, 2002); popularly-priced Advanced Coma-Free catadioptrics (2005); and dozens of innovations in between.
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Contact one of our friendly Meade Telescopes Elite experts: (800) 356-6603 meade@astronomics.com
Meade Refractors
Meade Dobsonian Reflectors
Meade Equatorial Reflectors
Meade Maksutov-Cassegrains
Meade Advanced Coma-Free Catadioptrics
Meade Schmidt-Cassegrains
Meade Schmidt-Newtonians
Meade Schmidt Camera
Meade Advanced Coma-Free Catadioptric Optical Tubes