In early 2002 Celestron's rival, Meade Instruments, attempted a takeover but a bankruptcy court allowed the sale of the company back to its original owners.

[7] The primary innovation Celestron/Tom Johnson devised was a method 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.

[10] These range from large computerized reflectors with GPS to decorative/casual viewing telescopes with brass tube refractors on wood mounts.

GPS receivers are useful for programming the telescope with its precise location and time, which aids the alignment process required for GoTo.

Meade later declared bankruptcy and was bought by Orion Telescopes & Binoculars and is now an American company based in Watsonville, California.