meade going under

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www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-meade-instruments-20130705,0,1646562.story

[brian nordstrom]

:sadeyes: Yea Peter , its sad news ,,
But the good news is that a Chineese company has bought Meade , like Celestron a few years ago.
The only positive here is ,,,,
The new owners might treat there customers after sales problems with a bit more respect than Meade ever did , its a known fact that Meade's after sale service sux (sucked) badly ...;)
Brian.

[BlackWidow]

Do they know who the Company is that have purchased Meade? Yea I agree Meads backup is really bad. This would have some bearing on the profitability of the Company. I have had some real issues with Meade, but love my scope. Fingers crossed it may be for the better.

[Nikolas]

In a consumer driven economy of today where there are a myriad of choices, telescopes, mounts etc are way overpriced.
Always have been.

[Astro_Bot]

JOC* bought Meade. They've been making some Meade components/products for a few years, AFAIK.

JOC also operates the Hioptic and Explore Scientific brands, and previously bought Meade Europe in 2009. JOC is also probably the operator of North Group, though whether NG is a supplier, partner, subsidiary or brand, I'm not sure.



* JOC = Jinghua Optics & Electronics, but they're commonly known simply as JOC

[04Stefan07]

Not good at all.

In relation to the article, am I the only 22 year old that think star parties as cool?

[Stardrifter_WA]

Star parties are cool Stefan. I am going to the coolest one of all, the Stellafane Telescope Makers Conference in Springfield Vermont USA. It is the biggest star party in the US. I leave for the US next week and will be in Springfield in August in time for Stellafane. Really looking forward to it.

Cheers Peter

[AndrewJ]

Gday AstroBot



Not yet;)

There is a very good thread running on cloudy nights re the shennanigans that appear to be going on behind the scenes.

JOC through Explore Scientific put in an offer that the Meade BoD were considering. Then a new group MIT capital ( which according to some in the US, looks like a shell company to cover some investors/venture capitalists ) put in an alternate bid, and just recently started to try an unsolicited direct buyout of the shareholders.
Soooo, its all still in limbo at present and some reckon if they keep fighting, the lawyers get the money and meade goes bankrupt, at which point all the bits get picked off by whoever is closest to the carcass.

Andrew

[FlashDrive]

:D....Show off ....I'll be looking for my Post Card fella :D

Flash....:P

[Stardrifter_WA]

Oh Col, would I forget to send you a post card? Sorry, wrong question. A better question will be "In all the excitement, will I remember" :rofl:

T-minus 1 week :D I am now "champing at the bit" to leave, particularly after the last week I have had at work......I am over it :lol:

[Fox]

Well, it will be very interesting to see the outcome. I hope they sell, and survive in some form. As much as I always slag on my LXD75 mount, it's been pivotal in rekindling my interest in observing.

Also, whenever I can get my scope to a party or gathering, it's always been a complete blast if people get to see Jupiter, Saturn, or a globular for the first time, they literally cannot believe their eyes and are amazed with 'that thing's been up there just over my head for my whole life ?'.

Finally, I firmly believe that the utterly hopeless and wasteful skylight pollution has had a big hand in murdering astronomy across the board. I vividly recall about ~40 years ago when I started with a Royal 4 inch Newt, and then a Meade 2080C SCT, my backyard sky from Mount Waverley (Melbourne) was beautifully black across the whole Carina-Crux-Scorpio area, and I could even point towards very low North to Lyra and plainly see the Ring M57 - yes, from backyard Mount Waverley! No chance of that anymore... :( :sadeyes: :confused2:

[Astro_Bot]

Although there were plenty of threads on this in May that it was a "done deal", it appears that the deal wasn't final after all. Thanks for the update.

The JOC deal was previously announced as "signed" (http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2013/05/17/548235/10033342/en/Meade-Instruments-Corp-Announces-Merger-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-Jinghua-Optics-Electronics.html) ... but subject to shareholder approval.

The MITC offer (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mit-capital-inc-proposes-to-acquire-meade-instruments-corp-for-365-per-share-in-cash-211998301.html) is more, but nobody seems to know much about them. Theories abound.

Here's the Cloudy Nights thread (http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/5928993/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/all/vc/1).

[Stardrifter_WA]

Although I do not like Meade products, particularly after all the trouble I had to go to in order to get the 16" Lightbridge to work smoothly, it would be a real shame to see it go, as competition drives innovation. Just look at what Celestron have done in recent times, and indeed Meade's innovative products, which has caused their woes, due to high cost involved in developing these new products.

Times are changing, particularly with many more players in the high end of the amateur market. Where once Meade and Celestron where considered to be the serious end of the amateur market, they are now entry level for series amateurs. This is not a bad thing, it is great, as it has made good easy to use equipment affordable and has driven the need for higher end products.

Now, we are seeing some fine products, as well as bad, coming out of China at very affordable prices. I expect that this will continue to improve as China gets its quality issues resolved over time.

The biggest worry for the amateur market though is twofold, the first being saturation of the market and the other being light pollution, which is ever increasing, and thus diminishing the see-able sky within city limits, where the majority of the future, if any, market for astronomical products, reside. Not everyone is going to bother to travel to dark sky sites.

All-in-all, particularly as far as equipment is concerned, we live in the golden age of amateur astronomy. Detectors that were once the province of professional are now affordable for the amateur.

But, I digress, if Meade does cease to exist, I don't think it will make that much of an impact on the amateur market. It certainly will have an impact on those who have Meade products and may need spare parts, but there after market service appeared to woeful anyway.

[Fox]

Nicely put Peter, Personally, whilst I think the LX850 shows some very nice innovation, I think Meade spent too much on the Meade Max and LX850 mounts - and conversely too little on an LXD75 replacement. They should have gone for higher quality design to really compete with the HEQ5, AZEQ6 and Celestron VX ballpark. The Meade LX80 was the wrong product IMHO. Fox

[Julian]

hopefully this will make way for some manufacturers of quality optical instruments,
rather than low cost Meade chinese knock off jobs, with plastic parts, poor service, and very poor quality mirrors.

[Stardrifter_WA]

I think that Meade couldn't really compete with the Chinese. These days, who the hell can? :sadeyes:

As you mention, the LX80 mount, they announced it well before it was even manufactured, something like one to two years before it was even available. It was a great idea, with good design but very poorly executed (particularly given that it had very noisy drives), despite the attractive pricing. Because of the the long lead time, it allowed Skywatcher to take the idea of an alt/az mount to another level.

Although the Skywatcher AZ EQ6 GT was considerably more than the LX80, it was, by far, a much better thought out mount. Despite its price, it was an LX80 killer. Meade lost its advantage, due to the long lead time. Never give your competitor an idea of what you are doing.

I have the AZEQ6GT now, and I like it, although it did have a couple of very minor issues in its design, in my view, but easily rectified.

Meade, frankly, have lost the plot; that is if they actually ever had one. :lol:

If Meade is finally bought out by the Chinese, I am sure that we will end up with a much more innovative product, in a similar fashion to Celestron.

Cheers Peter

[Fox]

Agreed, the LX80 lead time was rather ridiculous. I was intrigued by the LX80 when it was announced, but I meant it was the 'wrong' product in that Meade seems to have aimed far too low in terms of quality and payload capacity of the mount. To me, the LX80 should have taken aim at the HEQ5 Pro, and made a leap above that - the AZEQ6 did so, but the Meade LX80 simply hasn't. Fox