Orion Telescopes & Binoculars is an American retail company that sells

telescopes A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

, binoculars and accessories online and in-store for

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

and

birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

. It was founded in 1975 and has corporate offices in Watsonville,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. 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 ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomic ...

'' and ''

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

''.

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 Imaginova Corporation is a U.S. digital commerce company based in Watsonville, California. The company, which was started in 1999 as "Space.com" by CNN business anchor Lou Dobbs, later became known as Space Holdings Corp. Dan Stone became President ...

, the U.S. conglomerate founded in 1999 by

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

business anchor Lou Dobbs. Orion then began to sell non-Orion brand products, such as Tele Vue eyepieces and even

Celestron Celestron is an American company based in Torrance, California, United States, that manufactures telescopes and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and accessories manufactured by its parent company, the Synta Technol ...

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 The Meade Instruments (also shortened to Meade) is an American multinational company headquartered in Watsonville, California, that manufactures, imports, and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, CCD cameras, and te ...

Products

Orion sells a range of telescopes that they characterize as "beginner", "intermediate" or "advanced", including Newtonians, Maksutovs, Schmidt-Cassegrains, Ritchey-Chrétiens and

refractor A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and a ...

s with or without (sold as optical tube assemblies or "OTA") a variety of mounts. Orion also sells a series of

Dobsonian telescope A Dobsonian telescope is an altazimuth-mounted Newtonian telescope design popularized by John Dobson in 1965 and credited with vastly increasing the size of telescopes available to amateur astronomers. Dobson's telescopes featured a simplified ...

s 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 Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan (Synta Taiwan), also known as Synta, is a manufacturer of telescopes and optical components headquartered in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Overview Synta Technology Corporation was founded in Taoyuan, Taiwan around 1980 b ...

) 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 mounts (also made by Synta) and eyepiece accessories. At the high performance end of their range, Orion has a series of two element

apochromatic An apochromat, or apochromatic lens (apo), is a photographic or other lens that has better correction of chromatic and spherical aberration than the much more common achromat lenses. Explanation Chromatic aberration is the phenomenon of differ ...

(apo) refractors manufactured by SyntaAntony McEwan, Sky-Watcher ED100, Highlands Astronomical Society 2014, spacegazer.com
/ref> featuring "extra low

dispersion Dispersion may refer to: Economics and finance * Dispersion (finance), a measure for the statistical distribution of portfolio returns * Price dispersion, a variation in prices across sellers of the same item *Wage dispersion, the amount of variat ...

fluorite Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs sca ...

crown glass in one element of the

objective lens In optical engineering, the objective is the optical element that gathers light from the object being observed and focuses the light rays to produce a real image. Objectives can be a single lens or mirror, or combinations of several optical elem ...

. 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,

microscope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisi ...

s and monocular spotting scopes of the type used by birdwatchers and

marksmen A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision shooting using projectile weapons (in modern days most commonly an accurized scoped long gun such as designated marksman rifle or a sniper rifle) to shoot at high-value targets at longer-than-u ...

References

External links

*
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