Product Catalog

MEADE OPTICS. The quest for a perfect view.
A perfect view of the heavens will always be affected by things beyond our control: Atmospheric turbulence. Light
pollution. Clouds. But for over 30 years, it’s been our passion to control every aspect of the astronomy experience
that science, research, and precise optical manufacturing methods allow. Because the exploration we love to do at
night is made possible by the job we love to do each day.
Precision diamond milling. Electronic-beam vacuum coating. Interferometers. Foucault and Ronchi tests.
Complex optical coating formulas. These represent just a small part of the pains we go through each day to make
sure that when you reach the unreachable star, it will be a perfect pinpoint of light. There is not a commercial
telescope company on earth who has invested more money in equipment, brainpower, and optical innovation
than Meade. Comet discoverer David Levy puts it this way, “Meade has a generation of experience making optics
for telescopes and they’ve really got it right. Optically, even the smallest ETX is well worth double its price.”
This is our mission. To discover new ways to design and manufacture serious telescopes in high enough volume
to allow everyone an observatory-quality experience from their own backyard. It’s a dream that’s coming true.
After decades of industry-leading innovations, the Advanced Coma-Free design is our grandest achievement yet.
Astrophotographer Jack Newton says, “The genius of Meade’s engineering team is reflected in the new Advanced
Coma-Free design. It is just dramatically better than any Schmidt-Cassegrain you can buy. Meade has raised the
bar on the whole optics question. Everybody else will be scrambling to catch up.”
Dr. P. Clay Sherrod of the Arkansas Sky Observatories puts it this way, “Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain optics were
the best consumer optics made with that design. But the Advanced Coma-Free series are a real step up. The
optics on my 16" are absolutely the best I have ever tested in a production telescope… Bar none.”
Add to these optical triumphs our recent innovations in CCD imaging (our user-friendly family of DSI imagers
has created an astrophotography revolution) and it’s easy to see why the growth of Meade and the growth of
amateur astronomy go hand-in-hand.
It wouldn’t be wise for us to give away all of our research and manufacturing secrets (only six employees are
authorized to enter our Advanced Coma-Free lab). But we can tell you that while other manufacturers are
doing less and less to move astronomy forward, we will continue to do more and more. After all, astronomy is
our passion.