 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Optical instruments |
| Predecessor | Valor Electronics |
| Founded | 1964 (as Celestron Pacific) |
| Founder | Tom Johnson |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Products | Telescopes and other optical / mechanical devices |
| Website | Celestron.com |
Celestron, LLC is a company that manufactures telescopes and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and accessories manufactured by its parent company, the Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan.
The predecessor of Celestron was Valor Electronics, an electronics and military components firm founded in 1955 by Tom Johnson. [1] [2] [3] Johnson became involved with telescopes when he built a 6" reflecting telescope for his two sons. [2] In 1960, Johnson established the "Astro-Optical" division of Valor, which would later become Celestron. [3]
By 1964, Johnson had founded "Celestron Pacific" as a division of Valor Electronics [4] offering Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes from 4" to 22". In 1970 Celestron introduced its "C8" 8" diameter 2032 mm focal length, ƒ10 telescope, the first of a new line of telescopes built using methods developed by Celestron to produce Schmidt-Cassegrains at a high volume and low cost. [1] These models made significant inroads into the amateur astronomical and educational communities.
Johnson, the founder of the company, sold Celestron in 1980. [2] Celestron was acquired by Tasco in 1997 and almost went out of business when Tasco folded in 2001.
In early 2002 Celestron's rival, Meade Instruments, attempted 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 of Taiwan. Synta is a manufacturer of astronomy equipment and related components and at that time had been a supplier for Celestron for over 15 years. [5]
On March 13, 2012, Tom Johnson died at the age of 89. [3] [6]
Celestron was the first large scale commercial manufacturer of the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, introducing its "C8" 8" diameter 2032 mm focal length, ƒ10 telescope in 1970. [7] The primary innovation Celestron/Tom Johnson devised was a method to produce Schmidt corrector plates using a vacuum to pull the glass blanks into a pre-shaped curve mold called a "master block" during the polishing process. [8] [9] This allowed for inexpensive mass production of corrector plates of uniform shape. The telescope line had a trademark matte orange tube (changed to glossy black in 1980, and back to semi-gloss orange in 2006), and double-fork equatorial mount, and became a popular large aperture, compact design.[ citation needed ]
Other telescope product lines include the CGE, CGEM, CPC, NexStar, Omni, Onyx, AstroMaster, Ambassador, TravelScope, and PowerSeeker product lines. [10] These range from large computerized reflectors with GPS to decorative/casual viewing telescopes with brass tube refractors on wood mounts.
Celestron products (as of 2010) include:
Celestron telescopes offer the option to use computerized location of astronomical objects as well as mounts that will aim themselves at any given object, a technology known as 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 aids the alignment process required for GoTo.
Some motorized telescopes sold during the mid 80s to early 90s, including the Celestron Compustar which used a form of GoTo technology, did not allow for dates after 2000, thus making some Celestron products susceptible to the Y2K bug. However, a third party chip to update the computer is available for some products.
Since their founding in 1972, Meade Instruments has been one of Celestron's chief rivals. Design, sizing, introduction, and pricing of each company's products lines and models have been in response to their competition with each other.[ citation needed ] There has been litigation over infringement of patents between the two companies, one instance regarding GoTo technology. [12] In September 2013, Sunny Optics Inc, a unit of the Chinese firm Ningbo Sunny Electronic Co Ltd, completed the acquisition of the entire share capital of Meade. Meade later declared bankruptcy and was bought by Orion Telescopes & Binoculars and is now an American company based in Watsonville, California.
Astrophotography, also known as astronomical imaging, is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky. The first photograph of an astronomical object was taken in 1840, but it was not until the late 19th century that advances in technology allowed for detailed stellar photography. Besides being able to record the details of extended objects such as the Moon, Sun, and planets, modern astrophotography has the ability to image objects outside of the visible spectrum of the human eye such as dim stars, nebulae, and galaxies. This is accomplished through long time exposure as both film and digital cameras can accumulate and sum photons over long periods of time or using specialized optical filters which limit the photons to a certain wavelength.
The Meade Instruments is an American multinational company headquartered in Watsonville, California, that manufactures, imports, and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, CCD cameras, and telescope accessories for the consumer market. It is the world's largest manufacturer of telescopes.
The Maksutov is a catadioptric telescope design that combines a spherical mirror with a weakly negative meniscus lens in a design that takes advantage of all the surfaces being nearly "spherically symmetrical". The negative lens is usually full diameter and placed at the entrance pupil of the telescope. The design corrects the problems of off-axis aberrations such as coma found in reflecting telescopes while also correcting chromatic aberration. It was patented in 1941 by Soviet optician Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov. Maksutov based his design on the idea behind the Schmidt camera of using the spherical errors of a negative lens to correct the opposite errors in a spherical primary mirror. The design is most commonly seen in a Cassegrain variation, with an integrated secondary, that can use all-spherical elements, thereby simplifying fabrication. Maksutov telescopes have been sold on the amateur market since the 1950s.
The Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas, the main characteristic being that the optical path folds back onto itself, relative to the optical system's primary mirror entrance aperture. This design puts the focal point at a convenient location behind the primary mirror and the convex secondary adds a telephoto effect creating a much longer focal length in a mechanically short system.
Hamburg Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in the Bergedorf borough of the city of Hamburg in northern Germany. It is owned and operated by the University of Hamburg, Germany since 1968, although it was founded in 1825 by the City of Hamburg and moved to its present location in 1912. It has operated telescopes at Bergedorf, at two previous locations in Hamburg, at other observatories around the world, and it has also supported space missions.
Orion Telescopes & Binoculars is an American retail company that sells telescopes, binoculars and accessories online and in-store for astronomy and birdwatching. It was founded in 1975 and has corporate offices in Watsonville, California. A large proportion of its products are manufactured by the Chinese company Synta for the Orion brand name. Orion Telescopes & Binoculars ships its products to the United States and over 20 other countries. Orion puts out a semi-quarterly mail-order catalog as well as email catalogs. The company is a prominent advertiser in North American astronomy magazines, such as Sky & Telescope and Astronomy.
The El Leoncito Astronomical Complex is an astronomical observatory in the San Juan Province of Argentina. CASLEO is one of two observatories located within El Leoncito National Park, which is in a part of the country which rarely sees cloud cover. The other facility in the park is the Carlos U. Cesco Astronomical Station of the Félix Aguilar Observatory. CASLEO was established in 1983 by an agreement between National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MINCYT) of Argentina, the National University of San Juan (UNSJ), the National University of La Plata (UNLP), and the National University of Córdoba (UNC). The facility was dedicated in 1986 and regular observations began in 1987.
The ETX is a line of smaller aperture telescopes made by Meade Instruments.
Tasco sells consumer telescopes. Tasco mainly imports telescopes for amateur astronomers but has expanded into other optical products, such as spotting scopes, microscopes, binoculars, telescopic sights, and other rifle accessories. Tasco sells via retail stores, catalogs, and online retailers. Tasco is based in Miramar, Florida. George Rosenfield founded the firm as the Tanross Supply Company in 1954. It started as a distributor of fishing tackle and hardware. The name was later shortened to Tasco as its offerings expanded to include binoculars and eyepieces.
Sky-Watcher is a commercial distribution company established in 1999 by the Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan. It markets telescopes and astronomy equipment, such as mounts and eyepieces, aimed at the amateur astronomy market. The products are manufactured at Synta Taiwan's Suzhou Synta Optical Technology Co., Ltd. in Suzhou (Jiangsu), China. The brand is distributed in Canada, Europe and in the late 2000s, it was extended to the United States market.
The Heights Observatory is an Astronomical Observatory at The Heights School in Modbury Heights, Adelaide, South Australia.
Observatory Robert A. Naef is an astronomical observatory located at Épendes, Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland at 7.13938 degrees east of Greenwich and 46.76236 degrees north latitude. Its parallax constants are : ρ sin φ' = 0.68632 and ρ cos φ' = +0.72501.
The SUNY Oneonta Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Oneonta, New York, home to the state's largest optical telescope and one of the largest publicly open east of the Mississippi, a one-meter Newtonian reflector constructed by JMI Telescopes of Lakewood, Colorado.
The Whakatane Astronomical Society is a voluntary, non-profit society for people interested in amateur astronomy in the Whakatane District of New Zealand. The society was founded in September 1960, and maintains a small observatory in Whakatane, which has been operating continuously since 1964. The society is affiliated with the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand.
The Meade LX200 is a family of commercial telescopes produced by Meade Instruments launched in 1992 with 8" (20.32 cm) and a 10" (25.4 cm) Schmidt–Cassegrain models on computerized altazimuth mounts. Two larger models, a 12" (30.48 cm) and a 16" (40.64 cm), quickly followed. The original version was later informally named the "classic" LX200 as newer upgraded versions replaced it. The first of these was the LX200GPS, which featured global positioning system electronics. A 360 mm (14 in) LX200GPS was later added to the line.
Thomas Jasper Johnson or Tom Johnson was an American electronics engineer and astronomer who founded Celestron, a company which manufacturers telescopes, which revolutionized the amateur astronomy industry and hobby. Sky & Telescope magazine has called him, "among the most important figures shaping the last half century of amateur astronomy."
Suzhou Synta Optical Technology Co., Ltd. is a Chinese company located in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, the primary manufacturing subsidiary of Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan. It produces telescopes and astronomical equipment like mounts and eyepieces for the amateur astronomical market.
Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan, also known as Synta, is a manufacturer of telescopes and optical components headquartered in Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Astro-Physics, Inc. is a manufacturer of amateur telescopes, mounts, and accessories. Founded in 1975 by former Sundstrand Corporation engineer Roland Christen, the company is noted for its line of apochromatic refractors as well as high-end mounts. The company is located in Machesney Park, Illinois.
Hereford Arizona Observatory (HAO), IAU-code G95, is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by amateur astronomer Bruce L. Gary. Observational studies of unusual starlight fluctuations in Tabby's Star and WD 1145+017 are recent interests.
