Orion Telescopes & Binoculars is an American retail company that sells
telescopes,
binoculars
Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes (binocular vision) when viewing distant objects. Most binoculars are sized to be held ...
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''.
History
In 1975, Orion Telescopes & Binoculars was founded in a garage in Santa Cruz, California by Tim Gieseler, who served as its only president and CEO.
Between the mid-1990s and 2005, Orion only sold binoculars, telescopes, and accessories under the "Orion" brand.
In January 2005, Orion was acquired by
Imaginova, the U.S. conglomerate founded in 1999 by
CNN business anchor
Lou Dobbs. Orion then began to sell non-Orion brand products, such as
Tele Vue eyepieces and even
Celestron and
Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes.
In November 2017, Orion was repurchased by its employees, and has remained independent and American-owned ever since.
In June 2021, Orion acquired
Meade Instruments
Products
Orion sells a range of telescopes that they characterize as "beginner", "intermediate" or "advanced", including
Newtonians,
Maksutovs,
Schmidt-Cassegrains,
Ritchey-Chrétiens and
refractors with or without (sold as optical tube assemblies or "OTA") a variety of mounts. Orion also sells a series of
Dobsonian telescopes that come in "Classic" and "IntelliScope" versions, the latter with upgraded accessories and the ability to indicate astronomical objects to the observer aided by a computerized object database. Orion also sells Dobsonians with GoTo and tracking capabilities.
In late 2005 Celestron (which had recently been purchased by
Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan) announced an agreement that would allow Celestron 8, 9.25, and Schmidt-Cassegrain optical tube assemblies (OTA), painted in metallic gray and using the "Orion" brand (Celestron OTAs are painted either gloss black or semi-gloss matte orange), to be sold with Orion branded German
equatorial mount
An equatorial mount is a mount for instruments that compensates for Earth's rotation by having one rotational axis, the polar axis, parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used for astronomical telescopes and cameras. The ...
s (also made by Synta) and eyepiece accessories.
At the high performance end of their range, Orion has a series of two element
apochromatic (apo) refractors manufactured by Synta
Antony McEwan, Sky-Watcher ED100, Highlands Astronomical Society 2014, spacegazer.com
/ref> featuring "extra low dispersion" fluorite crown glass in one element of the objective lens. These are marketed as the ED80 (80 mm or objective at f/7.5), ED100 (100mm or at f/9) and ED120 (120mm or at f/7.5).
Orion also sells binoculars for astronomical and terrestrial observing, microscopes and monocular spotting scopes of the type used by birdwatchers and marksmen.
References
External links
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Company7 Orion Telescopes & Binoculars resource page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orion Telescopes and Binoculars
Telescope manufacturers
Retail companies of the United States
Manufacturing companies established in 1975
Retail companies established in 1975
1975 establishments in California