Meade Instruments

Meade Instruments began business in 1972 as a mail-order supplier of small refracting telescopes. In 1973 Meade added lines of Orthoscopic and Kellner eyepieces, followed rapidly by a group of precision rack and pinion focusers, viewfinders, filters, camera adapters, and other accessories.

By 1977 Meade Instruments offered a broad range of telescope accessories and parts for the serious amateur, a range of accessories and parts that in fact permitted the company to bring out its first in-house manufactured telescopes, Meade Models 628 and 826 6" and 8" reflecting telescopes.

The Model 2080 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope was introduced in 1980. By 1986 Meade Instruments was generally acknowledged as the largest, and certainly the leading, manufacturer of serious telescopes in the world. Each year thereafter saw new and exciting telescope models and accessories, as Meade led the way in telescope technology for the serious amateur.