JUST FOR FUN! Last updated: 13 September 1999

Meade Facility Tour

On Friday, 18 June 1999, I visited the Meade offices and factory in Irvine, California. I was hosted by Ken Baun, Vice President of Engineering. Ken took me on a tour of the facility. Meade has a tour page on their web site; visit it to see what I saw.

It was obvious that Meade is proud, and rightfully so, of their operation. The facility was clean, well laid out, and busy. I saw various models of Meade telescopes and components being built, tested, and boxed for shipment. I can attest that the ETX is in fact built at this facility. I saw bare ETX tubes, ETXes undergoing collimation, ETX drives being tested, and finished products. And yes, I saw ETX-125EC telescopes in various stages of assembly. Engineering and Customer Service are also located at this facility.

Also, I took advantage of this opportunity to have my ETX-90RA collimated. My nearly three-year-old ETX had begun to suffer "poor eyesight". I noticed that some slippage of the secondary mirror had occurred over time (see photo). This was corrected and the optics recollimated and cleaned. If you see any similar slippage I suggest returning your ETX to Meade for the correction.

My visit to Meade was enjoyable and productive, and I thank Ken for allowing me to take up his and a couple of his engineers valuable time.

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