valor electronics founded 1964 ; 52 years ago 1964 as celestron pacific number of locations torrance california u.s. key people tom johnson founder joseph a. lupica jr. president and ceo dave anderson cfo victor aniceto svp sales and marketing corey lee vp of engineering products telescopes and other optical mechanical devices website celestron.com celestron is a company based in torrance california usa that manufactures telescopes and distributes telescopes binoculars spotting scopes microscopes and accessories manufacture by its parent company the synta technology corporation of taiwan . contents 1 history 2 products 3 competition with meade 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit 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 10 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 2003 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 . 6 7 products edit a vintage 1970s orange tube celestron c8 telescope celestron was the first large scale commercial manufacturer of the schmidt cassegrain telescope introducing its c8 8 diameter 2032 mm focal length 10 telescope in 1970 . 8 the primary innovation celestron tom johnson came up with was a way 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 . 9 10 this allowed for the 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 telescopes product lines include the cge cgem cpc nexstar omni onyx astromaster ambassador travelscope and powerseeker product lines . 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 5 6 8 9.25 11 and 14 schmidt cassegrain telescopes the number denoting the aperture on german equatorial mounts all or fork mounts c8 c9 .25 c11 with most benefiting from goto control . a range of 8 9.25 11 and 14 modified schmidt cassegrains with a more advanced optical design a range of 2.4 to 6 inch 150 mm refractor telescopes . 6 to 10 inch 250 mm traditional reflector telescopes on german equatorial mounts . skyscout an astronomical sky finder or a personal planetarium . digital biological and stereo viewing microscopes binoculars and spotting scopes various mounts numerous eyepiece lines including both simple plossl and complex wide field designs as well as barlows . clarification needed celestron nexstar 114 telescope celestron c8 telescope an omni xlt120 achromatic refractor celestron nexstar 130slt goto telescope 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 allows the telescope to point more accurately . some motorized telescopes sold during the mid 80s to early 90s including the celestron compustar which used a form of goto technology were not programmed to allow for dates after 2000 ; making some celestron products susceptible to the y2k bug . however a third party chip to update the computer is available for some products . competition with meade edit for more details on this topic see meade instruments . 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 example being with regard to goto technology . 11 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 . see also edit amateur astronomy orion telescopes & binoculars references edit a b plotner tammy august 1 2008 . celestron telescope . universe today . retrieved 2011 04 25 . a b c ferron karri 2012 03 13 . celestron founder dies at age 89 tom johnson founded the telescope company in 1960 and revolutionized the hobby with the celestron 8 . astronomy magazine . retrieved 2012 03 28 . a b di cicco dennis 2012 03 13 . tom johnson 1923 2012 . sky & telescope . retrieved 2012 03 28 . philharrington.net nights of future passed celestron pacific check url value help . prnewswire.com celestron purchased by sw technology corporation a delaware company affiliate of synta technology corporation torrance calif. april 6 prnewswire dennis di cicco march 13 2012 . tom johnson 1923 2012 . sky & telescope . retrieved march 14 2012 . tom johnson announcement . celestron.com . march 13 2012 . retrieved march 17 2012 . james mullaney a buyer s and user s guide to astronomical telescopes & binoculars page 51 rod mollise down with love uncle rods.blogspot.com sunday february 21 2010 method for making replica contour block masters for producing schmidt corrector plates united states patent 3837124 meade celestron settle patent lawsuits . bloomberg news . bloomberg . july 9 2004 . retrieved 2011 04 25 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to celestron . official website nexstar resource site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title celestron & oldid 729954785 categories telescope manufacturershidden categories pages with url errorsall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from february 2011wikipedia articles needing clarification from february 2011commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschitaliano polskiportugu s edit links this page was last modified on 15 july 2016 at 18 55 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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