I think its true that Celestron is in trouble. But, I think Meade's near-term loss has a lot to do with the RCX-400. They've invested a lot of R&D money in it. Delivery of the RCX is running a couple of months behind but the 12" RCX's are "supposed" to start delivery some time this month. If the RCX is a winner - I think Meade will be back in the "barely" black within about a year. M & C -obviously have major investments in California, but, I think to stay viable, in the long term, they will need to start looking elsewhere. Clear skies, Dale. ________________________________ From: utah-astronomy-bounces+dale.hooper=sdl.usu.edu@mailman.xmission.com on behalf of MichaelCarnes Sent: Tue 4/5/2005 7:08 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] [Fwd: Celestron and Meade on the Ropes (twoOrange County Register articles)] I've been following this on the SCT group as well. Looks like the end of an era is nigh. Both Meade and Celestron made bad bets on the aging yuppie market (my generation). They figured that fancy computerized scopes would be must-haves for every acquisitive househould. It worked for a little while, but people quickly figured out that even a fancy scope with bells and whistles required training, patience and experience. The advertising for the NexStars and ETXs were dominated by deceptive photos of what you could see. Is it any wonder that such a fad quickly peaked? The real pity is that the optical quality of this generation of scopes is really superb. Leaving the politics aside, one can only hope that the quality of Chinese products continues to improve--looks like that's where our mid-priced optics will be originating. The truth of the matter is that amateur astronomy will never be a broadly-based hobby. There's just too much standing around in the dark for most people. Meade and Celestron bet on a market that just isn't there. Pity. On Apr 4, 2005, at 10:24 PM, Patrick Wiggins wrote:

This was just posted on the C14 users group.

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