Orion Telescopes & Binoculars was an American retail company that sold

telescopes A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

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 Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

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 such as binoculars or a telescop ...

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

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. A large proportion of its products were manufactured by the Chinese company Synta for the Orion brand name. Orion Telescopes & Binoculars shipped its products to the United States and over 20 other countries. Orion put out a semi-quarterly mail-order catalog as well as email catalogs. The company was a prominent advertiser in North American astronomy magazines, such as ''

Sky & Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly magazine covering all aspects of amateur and professional astronomy, including what to see in the sky tonight and new findings in astronomy. Other topics covered include: *observing guides for planets, ...

'' and ''

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

''. In July 2024, Sky and Telescope magazine reported that Optronic Technologies, the owner of Orion Telescopes, had closed their facilities in California and had laid off all of their employees. As of July 15, there had been no official announcement from the company, and S&T said they were trying to get more information from their sources.

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 presiden ...

, the U.S. conglomerate founded in 1999 by

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

business anchor

Lou Dobbs Louis Carl Dobbs (September 24, 1945 – July 18, 2024) was an American conservative political commentator, author, and television host who presented '' Moneyline'' (later ''Lou Dobbs Tonight'') from 1980 to 2009 and 2011 to 2021. From 2021 unti ...

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

Celestron Celestron, LLC is a company that manufactures telescopes and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and accessories manufactured by its parent company, the Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan. History The predecessor ...

and Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes. In June 2021, Orion acquired

Meade Instruments Meade Instruments Corporation (also shortened to Meade) was an American multinational corporation, multinational company (law), company headquartered in Watsonville, California, that manufactured, imported and distributed telescopes, binoculars, ...

Products

Orion sold 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 ...

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

Dobsonian telescope A Dobsonian telescope is an altazimuth mount, altazimuth-mounted Newtonian telescope design popularized by John Dobson (amateur astronomer), John Dobson in 1965 and credited with vastly increasing the size of telescopes available to amateur astro ...

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 sold 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 mount An equatorial mount is a mount for instruments that compensates for Earth's rotation by having one rotational axis, called ''polar axis'', parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used for astronomical telescope mount, tel ...

s (also made by Synta) and eyepiece accessories. At the high performance end of their range, Orion had 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. The prefix ''apo-'' comes from the Greek preposition ''ἀ ...

(apo) refractors manufactured by Synta 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 scal ...

crown glass in one element of the

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

. 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 sold binoculars for astronomical and terrestrial observing,

microscope A microscope () is a laboratory equipment, 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 ...

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

marksmen A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision shooting. In modern military usage this typically refers to the use of projectile weapons such as an accurized scoped long gun such as designated marksman rifle (or a sniper rifle) to shoot at ...

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