Meade market cap drops to US$1.94M

[gary]

Whilst the demise of the big U.S. automakers is filling the headline news,
Yahoo Finance is reporting that Meade's stock is now trading at as little
as 8 cents and the market cap has dropped to a mere US$1.94M.
See http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=MEAD

It is almost a case of "why buy just a scope when for a little more you could own
the whole factory?"

[Kal]

With company assets sitting at $21M - you could buy the company, tear it apart, and walk away with a profit =/

[PeterM]

Hi there Gary,
CN has a thread running for some time about the woes of Meades shares, with some it seemed delighting in "today it's 15cents, today it's 10cents" and so on. To me the thread became a farce not so much reporting on the share price but all the negative speculation that went with it. Regardless of share price and what their total share value is (and I don't think it could be bought for that anyways) Meade are still in there and I applaud them for their persistence with a new ETX coming out. They are one of the truely innovative manufacturers of top notch, reasonably priced astro equipment who set the bar and the standard for others to follow and imitate - providing technology that has helped thousands of amateurs achieve dreams and goals unheard of prior to. To my mind there are 4 manufacturers that stand out - 1. Meade LX200 (Classic, GPS, R, ACF) the telescope that dared to go where no others would (or could) 2. Starlight Xpress MX5 and so on, range of monochrome cameras 3. Software Bisque and The Sky Software - again setting the standard 4. Wildcard, Argo Navis - for years you have led the field here Gary and nothing else comes close. I listed the products I have found to work exactly as advertised and do exactly what I need. Amateur Astronomy would be the lesser without any of them.
PeterM

[AndrewJ]

Gday Peter



Just to start with, i own 2 Meade scopes and bang for buck they are great value.
However, as a result of persistent problems with the software, ( esp for Sth Hemi PEC operation initially ), i have spent a lot of time "digging" into the guts of the code, and finding ways around some of it.
Meades DO NOT work exactly as advertised
The serial commands for remote control have bugs
which is a huge concern to many users.
There are also many other bugs in the general use of the scopes
and whether or not you hit them can be pot luck.
Many of these bugs have been reported to Meade and met by a deafening wall of silence.
Meade appear to refuse to deal with these and dont respond to emails
Many sites constantly criticise the inability to get "technical" help or valid response to these sorts of problems.
This creates a very negative view of them ( rightly or wrongly ) in the eyes of many prospective customers
Producing "new products" whilst the existing ones are left to rot with known problems is not a reason to be applauding them.

Again, i reiterate, i have 2 Meades and i still use them happily
but i know most of the traps now, many new users dont
and their scopes may end up in a closet as a result.

Andrew

[PeterM]

Hi there Andrew,
You are absolutely right you get bang for your buck no doubt about it. Sorry to hear you (and others) have problems and yes I have heard getting help direct from Meade has been difficult, but recent posts on CN indicate this maybe changing. The good news for us in Australia is that with the likes of Don and Michael at Bintel and Barry Gerdes there seems to be more than enough local talent to sort most, if not all issues out.
I have owned 4 LX200s over the years. This year alone my 12inch LX200R has had 97 nights of operation at around 4-5hrs per night doing multiple slews to perhaps a 100 plus galaxies per night. That is a bigger workload than most would be doing and I have found it DOES work exactly as advertised. Gotos are spot on, always, from park to anywhere (within the slew limits) in the sky - I have the star in the focus window of my SXVM7 everytime. I know several others who have imaged many thousands of galaxies with no major issues, mechanical or software related, they even operate remotely. I have read lots attributable to user error, balancing, hot plugging, power supply issues and not reading how to set the thing up right in the first place, to name a few - inevitably the product gets tarred with these as well. Right or wrong I will continue to applaude Meade.
PeterM

[coldspace]

Well I own two Meades and have never had any problems with them.
I started out with Astronomy 6 years ago with an 8inch reflector that was mounted on EQ mount that some bloke :shrug:told me I would need to view things.
As I had never had any experience then with astro gear I bought it.
It turned out to be a real pain in the b_ _ to use for visual use. The eyepiece kept getting into all sorts of bad positions and been a novice with no goto or time to get along to Astro clubs or patience to learn the sky using more traditional methods in my bad lght polluted yard this scope got put into the back room and there it stayed and gathered dust for 3 years.
I still had the bug, but was mainly just reading mags and watched the odd space show.
3 years ago I bought an 125 ETX and this just rocked my world with its goto and ease of use with first rate optics. What people say about this scope's optics been first class is very true.
I know some very experienced observers now after joining a local club and some of them have looked through this little Mak and have been impressed with the optics. This scope will not allow you to take award winning photo's on its wobbly mount but it gets you into observing buy allowing novices to view many objects in one night and with tracking so this in turn keeps people motivated. After the ETX I was addicted so went out and bought a 12inch LX200R and ordered a colour Mallincam hyperplus video camera from Canada and let me say this combo really rocks. When we have friends over or just me I set the 12R up, plug in the laptop with sky 6, Mallincam in, and sit in our light polluted yard and watch objects down to Mag 19 with no stacking appear on my 17 icnch LCD screen live. Many in full colour with heaps of detail. Anyone who has been over here always falls over in what they are seeing. Punching in an object in the sky6 selecting it, watch as the big 12R swings around perfectly and stops, then the object appear on screen in colour, just awesome for what can be achieved now with gear that is easily obtainable. Everyone that has seen this set up in action comment on its like been in a space ship and my 17inch monitor is the porthole.
I have no skill in computers and once I was shown how to link the 12R upto my laptop by PeterM ( thanks Peter) this LX200R has worked flawless every time and the only problems I have had have been because of my mistakes and user error, like not selecting the right com port or wrong time or any number of settings that you have to have right for it to work nice. Now I am way more experienced with it all I have no problems and can have my 12R setup with laptop,mallincam and LCD monitor in 20 minutes all working great. I have taken my large set up out camping many times and have not had any problems with the 12R. I think alot of people gripe about these things because of user error.
When PeterM discovered his S/Nova, I had my brother over so we set the scope up, plugged in the Mallincam and there was his S/nova at Mag 17.5 on the screen blazing away in its host Galaxy :eyepop:. I rang Peter up and told him we were viewing it live at that time, exciting night :party2: it was and this would not have been possible to me with out my 12 LX200R and Mallincam.
Bottom line, these Meades got me back into Astronomy big time and without them I would be just reading Mags and wondering.
I did alot of research after getting stung first time around, and everyone around me were saying get a big 16inch Dob, get 80mm refractor and DSLR, do this ,do that but at the end of the day I don't have time or patience to get into dedicated astro photography or the time to get out to dark skies to make use of a large dob, so the LX200R and Mallincam keeps the fun for me. I own a medium Airconditioning company and we do 100's of homes a year and 95% of the problem's we have on any call backs have been because of customer or one of our installer's error's and not the machines . You will always here the 5% of problems 100% of the time but the other 95% of people that are happy stay quiet and carry on in their lives. I know, I see this every day in our buisiness and its not unlike Meades in that its complicated equipment and it is aimed at the general mass market, so you will always here the bad things alot more than the good. Bottom line, I think most of the problems and gripes people have with their Meade scopes here and oversea's stems from user error or I must be one of the very few lucky ones that has a good scope, which is highly unlikley.I hope Meade sticks around as its inovative companies like this that gets people like me out of my lounge room and outside viewing the sky. This in turn make's people like me go and buy things like Naglers, dew heaters, covers, and this in turn helps keep the Astronomy economy going so everyone can access all these goodies at reasonable prices :).

Regards Matt.

[Bassnut]

Despite complaints of Meades quality contoll (as happens with all hi tech gear priced for the unwashed hoi poloi), they offer value unmatched by the next step up in the competition. I read somewhere that those in this hobby are "old school" hands-on mid-life-crises baby boomers (Harley has the same problem), which is passing its have-the-money-now-lets-go peak. The generation following is less inclinded (and less of them) and has different interests, these type of "hobbies" are of a fading interest.

Ive used an LX200R OTA with success for some time, but those with money move up for the qudos, and those without purchase all-in-one rigs that dont quite reach expectations, especially with long exposure astrophotography. Its a difficult situation, Meade OTAs are killer items (for the price) for the serious user with a better mount, but their turn key systems (the market for Meade generally) let the brand down IMO.

[AndrewJ]

Gday Freddy


I cant disagree there
I have an ETX 125 and a 10"GPS SCT and the optics are superb
Just the software/firmware lets them down at times
As per my prev post, many users have no problems
but many do, and its sometimes random as to who ends up in the poo.
Its the latter that gets all the bad press
and Meade dont appear to do anything to alleviate this.
( And many of the problems are well defined and easily fixed )

Andrew

[Ian Robinson]

Hostile take over target ?