Celestron
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Celestron, LLC. | |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1950's |
| Headquarters | Torrance, CA |
| Key people | Joseph A. Lupica Jr., President and CEO, Richard L. Hedrick, SVP and CTO, Jim Edmiston, VP, Sales |
| Industry | Manufacturing |
| Products | Telescopes and other optical / mechanical devices |
| Employees | 120 |
| Website | Celestron website |
Celestron is a company that makes and imports telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and accessories for their products.
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[edit] Origins and History
Celestron was founded in the 1950’s by Tom Johnson and Alan Hale. In its early days it was principally a binocular company. Celestron made its name with the first commercial produced Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope introducing its "C8" 8-inch telescope designed by Tom Johnson in the mid-1960s. Its models made significan inroads into the amateur astronomical and educational comunities. Celestron was acquired by Tasco in 1997 and almost went out of business when Tasco folded in 2001. In early 2003 Celestron's rival, Meade Instruments Corporation, atempted a takeover but a bankruptcy court allowed the sale of the company back to its original owners. The company had been U.S. owned until April 2005 when it was acquired by SW Technology Corporation, a Delaware company and affiliate of Synta Technology Corporation in China. Synta is a leading manufacturer of astronomy equipment that are copies of original designs by companies such as Celestron and Vixen.
[edit] Products
As noted above Celestron was the first large scale commercial manufacturer of the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, introducing its "C8" 8-inch telescope in the mid-1960s. The telescope, with its trademark matte orange tube (changed to glossy black in 1980), has been a popular large aperture, compact design.
Other Celestron products include:
- a series of fork mounted Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes including the "C5", "C11", and "C14" (each number denoting their aperture) introduced in the 1970s. More recently they have produced the "C9.25" and the "C6" Schmidt-Cassegrain mounted on a German equatorial mount.
- a range of 2.4 to 6-inch refractor telescopes.
- 6 to 10-inch traditional reflector telescopes.
- a range of 6 to 12-inch Dobsonian telescopes known as the "Starhopper" series.
- 90mm & 130mm Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes.
- the "C-20" observatory class photographic Astrograph telescope introduced in 2004 (Celestron’s largest telescope to date, based on a corrected Dall-Kirkham design).
Like other manufacturers, Celestron telescopes offer the option to use computerized locating of astronomical objects as well as mounts that will aim them selves at any given object (a technology commonly called "GoTo"). Most of the computerized models can be connected to an external computer via an RS-232 cable, allowing them to be controlled by a third-party astronomy program or connected to a GPS receiver. GPS receivers are useful for programming the telescope with its precise location and time, which allows the telescope to more precisely target stellar objects.
[edit] Competition with Meade
Since their founding in 1972 Meade Instruments Corporation has been one of Celestron's chief rivals. Design, sizing, introduction, and pricing of each companies products lines and models have been in response to there competition with each other. There has even been litigation over infringement of patents between the two companies (the latest being over GoTo technology).
