Scott W. Roberts

Founder & President

Scott Wayne Roberts, born in 1959, has spent a lifetime at the intersection of design, technology, and the human instinct to look up. Scott’s work in optical instruments is only part of the story. What defines his path is a steady commitment to making the night sky approachable, understandable, and personal for anyone willing to take a moment to see it.

Since 1980, Scott has helped place telescopes and precision optics into the hands of enthusiasts around the world. But his focus has never been limited to the instruments themselves. Again and again, he has worked to create opportunities for people to gather, to learn, and to experience astronomy together. Through events, presentations, and ongoing outreach, Scott has approached his work not as a transaction, but as an invitation.

Step through that invitation, and the sky changes. It is no longer distant. It becomes something you can engage with, question, and carry with you.

Scott continues to advocate for astronomy and space exploration as something that belongs to everyone. Not as an abstract science, but as a direct experience—one that connects people to the universe and to each other.

Explore Scientific

In 2008, at an Astronomical League conference, Scott founded Explore Scientific, LLC. This was not a return to the industry so much as a continuation of a much longer journey. The goal was clear: to build a company that reflects both precision in optics and a broader sense of exploration.

From the beginning, Explore Scientific aligned itself with the traditions of outreach and recognition that shaped the amateur astronomy community. The company’s sponsorship of the National Young Astronomer Award and the Leslie C. Peltier Award was dedicated to John Diebel and Meade Instruments, honoring a legacy of supporting those who teach, inspire, and extend astronomy beyond themselves.

Explore Scientific has grown into more than a manufacturer. It stands as part of a larger ecosystem that connects astronomy, nature, and discovery across disciplines.

Meade Instruments

Scott’s career with Meade Instruments began in 1986 and spanned more than two decades of transformation within the telescope industry. He started in technical support and sales, learning firsthand how people encounter astronomy—where confusion begins, where excitement takes hold, and what keeps someone engaged over time.

From 1992 to 1998, Scott worked in Asia, primarily in Taiwan, establishing quality standards for small telescopes and accessories. It was detailed, hands-on work that shaped how products were built at scale.

Over the years, Scott served in a range of leadership roles, including Senior Technical Sales Manager, Director of Technical Sales, Vice President and National Sales Manager for the United States and Canada, and later Vice President of Brand Community and Consumer Solutions. His work extended across product design, manufacturing quality, e-commerce, training, testing, and marketing.

In 1996, he helped develop Meade.com, one of the first websites in the telescope industry. In 2005, he launched the Meade 4M Community, an early global network for astronomy enthusiasts.

Scott concluded his time at Meade in 2008 as Vice President of Global Client Support and Community Relations. Along the way, he taught thousands of people how to use telescopes. The first time someone sees Saturn’s rings, something shifts. That moment stays.

Oceanside Photo & Telescope

Scott’s early career was shaped at Oceanside Photographic Center, where he worked from 1975 to 1986 in roles that ranged from camera repair and darkroom work to sales, training, and management. It was a place grounded in craft. You learned by doing, and by helping others understand the tools in their hands.

In the early 1980s, as manager, Scott introduced serious amateur telescopes into the company’s offerings. That decision changed the direction of the business. Soon after, he began organizing events that brought people together around astronomy, turning individual curiosity into shared experience.

This evolution led to the transformation of the company into Oceanside Photo & Telescope, and to the founding of the Oceanside Photo & Telescope Astronomical Society. What began as a local effort grew into one of the largest amateur astronomy communities in Southern California.

Working alongside Craig Weatherwax and Mike West, Scott helped position the company as a leading retailer of high-end astronomical equipment. More importantly, it became a place where people could begin a lifelong relationship with the sky.

Outreach & Global Engagement

Outreach has remained a constant thread throughout Scott’s career.

Inspired by John Diebel’s commitment to supporting the astronomy community, Scott helped launch the Meade 4M Community in 2005, bringing together organizations and individuals dedicated to astronomy and space exploration across the globe.

Scott Roberts contributed to "Science Educators Under The Stars: Amateur Astronomers Engaged in Education and Public Outreach" Published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

In 2007, Scott contributed to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s publication Science Educators Under the Stars, one of the first works focused on amateur astronomy outreach and education. That same year, he coordinated what became the largest single donation of telescopes for public outreach. Thousands of instruments—once considered unsellable—were refurbished and distributed through programs led by Dr. Mike Reynolds, placing them into the hands of educators and communities worldwide.

Scott has also contributed to the global science community through his work with the STARMUS festival. As a volunteer, he has helped coordinate Star Party experiences that connect attendees directly with the night sky. During the 2025 STARMUS event in La Palma, Scott stepped in as emcee, introducing renowned speakers including Jane Goodall. He continues to work alongside the organizers, supporting the festival’s mission to bring science, exploration, and human curiosity into a shared experience.

Today, Scott continues to lead and support initiatives that expand access to astronomy, including:

• The Alliance of Historic Observatories

• The Global Star Party

Continuing Work

Across decades, roles, and organizations, the throughline remains consistent.

Make it easier for people to look up.

Make it easier for them to understand what they are seeing.

And remind them that the experience belongs to them.

Because once someone has that moment—standing under the sky, seeing something real for the first time—it rarely leaves them.

Currently, Roberts is involved in several projects dedicated to educational outreach, including:

Alliance of Historic Observatories

The origin of the Alliance of Historic Observatories traces back to a conversation rather than a plan.

While at Yerkes Observatory, Scott Roberts spent time with Sam Hale, grandson of George Ellery Hale. The setting mattered. Yerkes is not just a place. It carries the weight of where modern astrophysics began to take shape.

In that moment, the conversation turned to the observatories that Hale had helped bring into existence—Yerkes, Mount Wilson Observatory, and Palomar Observatory. Each one had played a role in expanding our understanding of the universe. Each one still stood. But they were operating independently, without a shared framework to preserve their collective legacy or extend their relevance to new generations.

The idea was simple. What if these observatories were connected again—not just historically, but actively? Not as monuments, but as working centers of inspiration.

That conversation became the seed of what would later grow into the Alliance of Historic Observatories. Over time, the concept expanded beyond the Hale observatories to include other significant institutions around the world. The purpose remained consistent: to preserve these places, to support their ongoing work, and to open them more fully to the public as gateways to science, history, and discovery.

It did not begin as an organization. It began as a recognition that these places still matter, and that, together, they could matter even more.

Global Star Party

The Global Star Party did not begin as a program. It began as a response.

In 2020, when much of the world had gone still and people were separated from one another, the usual ways of sharing astronomy—star parties, public events, gatherings at observatories—were suddenly out of reach. The sky was still there. Clear as ever. But the experience of it, the shared part of it, had been interrupted.

Scott Roberts recognized something in that moment. People were not just missing events. They were missing connection.

So he started something simple. A live stream with a few friends, and their telescopes. An open invitation to the public.

The first Global Star Party was not polished. It was not structured. It was real. People signed on from different time zones, different countries, different levels of experience. Some brought telescopes. Some brought stories. Some just showed up to listen. What mattered was that they were there, together, looking up.

Over time the Global Star Party became a place where professional astronomers, amateur observers, educators, students, and first-time viewers could meet on equal ground. There were no barriers to entry. No requirement beyond curiosity. One person might be sharing a live view of Saturn. Another might be talking about cosmology. Someone else might be seeing the Moon through a telescope for the first time.

Over time, it became something more than a broadcast. It became a community.

With over a hundred and seventy live-streamed episodes and participants from around the world, the Global Star Party continues to reflect a simple idea: that astronomy is best experienced together. Not as spectators, but as participants. Not as an audience, but as a shared moment.

The sky does not belong to any one place or any one group. And for a few hours at a time, through the Global Star Party, people are reminded of that. And it grows today. 

Documentary Work