§ 2.1. Characteristics of Early Questar Telescopes
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In 1954, Lawrence Braymer’s company began production of the Questar telescope in a small shop on South Main Street in New Hope, Pennsylvania. While he and an employee assembled them, his wife Marguerite oversaw a variety of jobs. She managed the office, did the bookkeeping, and helped with testing instruments after they were finished. At the same time, she continued her professional writing in New York. “We needed the money,” Marguerite later remembered.[1]
In 1955, the Braymers moved their company three miles west to its current site on U.S. Highway 202 just outside of New Hope. By 1958, Questar had grown to the point where it had three employees. The company’s office was a 200-year-old farmhouse, and its manufacturing took place in an old barn next door.[2]
Rarely if ever employing more than a handful of persons, Questar’s artisans built each instrument by hand. Focusing on each telescope one at a time, they often made customizations to satisfy a customer’s wishes. As a result, many Questars are unique in some way.[3]
If any of Lawrence Braymer’s employees had the most skill with taking a general idea and making it work, it was John Schneck. During Questar’s early days, he was Braymer’s right-hand man. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Questar’s founder had created an enormously ambitious design for a small telescope with several built-in accessories. Bringing his plan to production required an equal amount of drive and ambition. The Questar telescope required countless moving parts that all had to be machined and assembled with little if any room for error. Not only were the fabrication requirements demanding, but the coordination of numerous suppliers also represented a formidable task. As he had done with calling upon Norbert Schell to create actual optical plans using his general concepts, so too did Braymer put his trust in John Schneck’s abilities to take his ideas for how the Questar telescope should be built and make them a reality.
Joining the company not too long after it began, Schneck had become its production manager before the 1950s was out. By the late 1960s, he had earned the title of vice president.[4] He stayed with Questar until the mid-1970s. There’s a little bit of his touch in all Questars built during and even after his tenure.
Rather than undertake the fabrication of its own parts, the company has always operated as a small assembly shop using parts that other individuals made. Since he did not have proper machining or optical production facilities in his rural home on Honey Hollow Road in Solebury Township, Lawrence Braymer worked instead with a variety of suppliers. When some of them learned that he was using the parts they made to produce a telescope, “they thought he was some crazy nut,” Marguerite recalled.[5]
By the early 1960s, as Lawrence Braymer wrote in an advertisement in Sky and Telescope, Questar was working with over one hundred suppliers. He quickly added that “constantly riding herd on so many separate sources turns out to be no small task.” The company inspected every part it used, and occasionally it found flaws in parts from suppliers whose other work had been flawless. “Sometimes several things go wrong at once. These are the days we are apt to wonder what keeps the whole economy glued together. What brings on this lament? The fact that yesterday our production manager had to spend his entire day at the plant of a distant supplier getting his boys back on the rails again.”[6]
As he wondered about what kept the economy together, Braymer’s use of a glue metaphor was apt, for it applied to his own telescope, too. John Schneck once joked that, if there was no Loctite, there would be no Questar.[7]
Perhaps as a way to manage the sheer number of these suppliers, Questar contracted only with domestic producers except for the company’s English saddle leather cases and its Japanese-made eyepieces and diagonal prisms.[8]
A Breakthrough in the History of Telescopes
The instrument that Lawrence and Marguerite Braymer’s company built was indeed a remarkable breakthrough in the history of telescopes. With a vast selection of high-quality instruments and accessories that amateur astronomers enjoy today, it is easy to forget how past generations had far fewer choices. When Questar began production of their 3.5-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope in 1954, as Sky and Telescope writer Gary Seronik later reflected, “there were no Dobsonians, no Schmidt-Cassegrains, no apochromatic refractors, no CCD cameras, no Nagler eyepieces, no Go To mounts, and on and on. Questar was born in an era characterized by long-focus, small-aperture scopes that were aimed at the Moon, planets, and double stars. Deep-sky observing was on a little-traveled side road.”[9]
Distinguishing itself from the typical reflectors and refractors of the mid-1950s, the Questar, as the company’s first advertisement declared, was “a beautiful and compact 20th-century telescope of great power and versatility.” With its unique ultra-compact design, “Questar literally frees the telescope from the eighteenth-century form into which it has been frozen, and lifts from the telescope the ancient burden of sheer bulk and weight that has made it so awkward to set up and use, and so difficult to carry and store.” Without the false color of refractors or the spider vanes and open-tube construction of reflectors, “Questar uses its own Cassegrain catadioptric system of 3.5-inch aperture, whose 3.8-inch spherical mirror works at f/2 only 6 inches behind a triple-passage meniscus correcting lens.”[10]
Although the company could hardly claim impartiality, Questar did not exaggerate when it sang the praises of what in fact represented a fresh and distinctive departure from long-focus telescopes that often rested on heavy equatorial mounts. Indeed, Maksutov’s influential paper had appeared in the United States only ten years before the Questar emerged onto the market as the first commercially-produced catadioptric telescope.
Optics
Lawrence Braymer knew the challenge he faced: conceiving of a design for a groundbreaking telescope was one matter, but producing its optics was quite another. He used the opportunity of Questar’s advertisement in the June 1955 issue of Sky and Telescope to offer some comments on the matter. Although conventional telescopes “are difficult enough to produce,” they are still “turned out by many people, and the necessary skill is no longer limited to a few celebrated makers.” Compound telescopes like Questar, on the other hand, required far greater precision. If making an f/4 mirror is twice as hard as an f/8 one, then Questar’s f/2 primary mirror “must be something like sixteen times more exquisite of surface to withstand our requirements.”[11]
Since Braymer was not himself an optical fabricator, the task before him was to find a reliable partner who could produce Questar’s primary mirror and corrector lens for him. To get to that point, he first had to travel a long, winding, and frustrating path.
Main System Optics: From Cave to Cumberland
For corrector lenses, Braymer’s first source was David Bushnell, a Californian who earned his undergraduate degree in foreign trade from the University of Southern California in 1936. After graduating, he began his own import-export business. While he was on an extended honeymoon in Japan, he purchased two crates of binoculars that he sold upon his return home in 1948. His optical business took off from there. By the time Braymer was looking for a source of corrector lenses for his telescope, Bushnell had already become well equipped to do business with him. Using his contacts with Japanese optical manufacturers who did the actual production work, he supplied the corrector lens for the earliest Questar telescopes.[12]
Braymer also needed a manufacturer for primary mirrors. Since Bushnell’s Japanese optical producer was unwilling to make them,[13] Braymer turned to Thomas Cave. Another California-based entrepreneur who emerged during the postwar years, Cave was busy himself building his own business for producing mirrors and other optical components for reflecting telescopes. Later, he would offer complete telescope kits.
Cave was not Braymer’s first choice. Earlier, as Cave Optical Company employee O. Richard Norton recalled in an article appearing in the August 1994 issue of Sky and Telescope, Questar’s founder had already worked unsuccessfully with a number of optical manufacturers to produce the thin 3.5-inch primary mirrors that Braymer’s new telescope required. Using the blocking method for figuring lenses that producers had mastered during World War II, these manufacturers tried to minimize costs by grinding and polishing several mirror blanks at the same time. But once they removed them from the block, they released strains in the glass, and they became astigmatic. Norton remembered that “Braymer had set aside a number of these flawed mirrors, and Cave agreed to work on six of them. Instead of treating them as one large mirror, we put them on polishing machines one at a time and designed a system that would keep stresses to a minimum as they were polished. The results were spectacular—clean, sharp images at last.”[14]
In 1952, Cave began making primary mirrors for Questar, and his company ultimately produced somewhere around 150 or 200 of them if not more.[15] In April 1954, Cave produced a small number of corrector lenses.[16]
In his advertisement that first appeared in the February 1955 issue of Sky and Telescope, Braymer was happy to share a letter in which Thomas Cave marveled at Questar’s optical quality. “We are simply amazed at the perfect optical performance of the system,” he wrote. With its resolution exceeding the Dawes limit for a telescope its size, it performed at least as good as a four-inch refractor. “The really nice feature of the telescope is its extreme compactness and its superb performance which makes it a telescope truly of the future.”[17] But nowhere in this advertisement was there any mention of the fact that it was Cave’s company that produced Questar’s optics to begin with.
Contrary to what he claimed in his advertisements, Braymer was often unsatisfied. With his Japanese-made corrector lenses and his Cave-produced primary mirrors in his hands at last, Braymer attempted to mix and match components in an effort to get the best pairings he could. The star tests he performed over many long nights were tedious and imprecise, and few sets met his requirements. He returned many parts for refiguring.[18]
Thomas Cave’s talents lay in fabricating mirrors for reflecting telescopes that needed far less precision than what Questar’s compound optics called for. When he turned to producing mirrors with unforgiving requirements, he ultimately failed to hold the tolerances for curvature radius errors that Braymer demanded. The optics he made could bring the image in focus either on the inside or on the outside of the focal axis but not both.[19] On March 30, 1956, Questar and Cave Optical Company agreed to terminate their manufacturing relationship.[20]
But Braymer still had imperfect optics sets on his hands, and he now had to find a producer who could not only refigure them effectively but also make new sets that were satisfactory going forward. At first, he contacted Perkin-Elmer Corporation, another company that grew quickly as a producer of optical systems for the military during World War II. But they proved to be too expensive. He then turned to J. R. Cumberland.[21]
After doing work for the U.S. government at the Washington Navy Yard during World War II, Joseph Roland Cumberland opened J. R. Cumberland Optical Company in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 1944.[22] Still operating from his garage when Braymer hired him in 1956, Cumberland first turned his attention to fixing and matching the existing set of optics. Braymer was loath to waste anything and was not about to dispose of salvageable optics sets, a pattern of thrift he would often follow later in Questar’s history. After that stock was exhausted, Cumberland then began production of his own matched primary mirrors and corrector lenses. He also devised a way to mass produce them while also meeting Questar’s high standards.[23]
After he refigured Braymer’s existing optics sets, Cumberland went through a relatively brief period during which he made his own primary mirrors for Japanese-made corrector lenses and his own corrector lenses for Cave-produced primary mirrors. He made his first complete optics set in June 1958.[24]
With some help from Braymer, Cumberland eventually built up enough capital to operate out of his own building.[25] He continued making optics for Questar and other clients until his retirement in 1997, when his sons Stephen and Dwight took over the company. And in 2015, longtime employees Robert Kautz and William Greening bought J.R. Cumberland Optical.[26]
Optical Testing
From its earliest days, Questar rigorously tested the telescopes it built. In its 1960 booklet, the company assured prospective customers that “every Questar is star-tested by our production manager on Polaris at night. None can be sold until he is satisfied that it beats Lord Rayleigh’s theoretical limit and equals or betters the Dawes’ criteria for perfect resolution.”[27]
After workers completed enough units to fit onto four or five carts and did a first round of testing and alignment inside the shop, they stored them inside three locked metal sheds on the company’s grounds. After nightfall, they came back to do their star testing on each instrument, and they recorded the results. The production shop used a scale with five levels from low to high: 1, 1+, 2, 2+, and 3. Any instrument receiving a rating lower than normal (1 or 1+) was rejected. Those receiving a rating of 2+ were excellent and infrequent. Only exceptional examples received a rating of 3.[28]
As part of its commitment to demonstrate the resolving power of its telescopes, Questar soon took an additional step. Around late 1957, the company began shipping new instruments with a high-quality copy of the National Bureau of Standards Microscopy Test Chart. In a set of instructions that accompanied the chart, Questar suggested that, in the absence of those rare nights with perfect seeing, one could use the NBS test chart in calm air at a distance between 34 and 95 feet. “THIS QUESTAR IS GUARANTEED TO RESOLVE 0.9 SECOND ON THIS TEST CHART,” the company boldly asserted on the instruction sheet.[29]
Not failing to seize an opportunity to highlight such claims in its marketing, the company ran an advertisement featuring its use of this test chart in the November 1957 issue of Sky and Telescope. Under the headline “Questar Guarantees 0.9-sec. Resolution on National Bureau of Standards Test Chart,” the advertisement proclaimed that every new Questar included its final test record and a copy of the NBS test chart. Its copy went on to say that, when telescopes come with a guarantee, the theoretical resolving power as determined by the Dawes limit is usually the basis for that guarantee. For the 3.5-inch Questar, that theoretical resolving power is 1.3 second of arc. But, to Questar, that guarantee means little. Using charts from the Bureau of Standards, Questar bases “a performance guarantee and at the same time [furnishes] the simple means to prove it” without the need for an elusive night with perfect seeing. Using the test chart, the buyer of a Questar “can duplicate our test himself; the chart will tell him at a glance whether his 3 ½-inch Questar resolves the 0.9 second of arc that we guarantee.”[30]
A little over a year later, Robert R. Hailey, one of the company’s clients, wrote to the company that its resolution claim of 0.9 seconds of arc was an error. In actuality, the Questar telescope resolved to 0.8 arcseconds on the NBS test chart.[31] Every last shred of resolution counted.
Aspheric Optics
Following the design of Braymer’s friend Norbert Schell, the optical surfaces of the earliest production Questars were spherically figured. As such, they fell just short of being diffraction limited, a resolution threshold generally thought to be defined by one-quarter of a wavelength of light. The resolution those first Questars were able to achieve with their spherical optics, however, was no better than three-tenths of a wavelength of light.[32]
In the December 1957 issue of Sky and Telescope, Questar announced that it had redesigned its optics to use aspheric figuring. Under the headline “Another Questar Achievement—Aspheric Catadioptric Optics,” the company wrote, “We have now learned how to add a final crowning touch to every set of Questar optics. Aspheric hand retouching is employed to bring each matching lens and mirror to their ultimate perfection. By these painstaking, skillful means the already minute residual aberrations of this most modern of all systems are still further reduced.” Questar boasted further that, with their instruments “now achieving such fine resolution, we doubt if 3.5 inches of aperture can be pushed much father. The limit appears to have been reached.”[33]
Underscoring the change, Questar further clarified in its advertisement in the November 1958 issue of Sky and Telescope that each corrector lens and primary mirror set is “individually matched by aspheric hand retouching during prolonged performance testing, further reducing already negligible residual aberrations.”[34]
Quartz Mirrors
From the beginning, the company offered primary mirrors made of Pyrex, a borosilicate glass that Corning Glass Works had developed decades before. Its low thermal expansion properties made it an ideal primary mirror substrate.[35] Meanwhile, the paired 0.350-inch-thick corrector lens was made of “precision-annealed” BSC-2 borosilicate crown glass.[36]
In the same announcement for its aspheric optics that the company made in the December 1957 issue of Sky and Telescope, Questar also introduced a quartz mirror option. The company saw an opportunity for a considerable increase in “Questar’s resistance to temperature shock by making its most sensitive element, the mirror, of quartz. For those who require the ultimate, we can supply Questar with quartz mirror.” Its cost was an additional $105 on top of the $995 standard price.[37] The material that the company used at the time, as longtime Questar manager Jim Perkins noted, “was a low expansion vitreous non-crystalline substrate that had exceptional thermal... and tooling characteristics.”[38]
Optical Mounting Hardware
Primary Mirror Mount
Echoing his November 1947 patent, Braymer noted in his 1954 Questar booklet that the primary mirror was mounted on a thimble with plastic shims to keep its glass insulated from the heat-conducting stainless-steel central tube. “Aside from this support, the mirror is free-standing in air, with consequent mechanical and thermal stability.” As the mirror moved back and forth along the central tube, it allowed the Questar to focus from infinity to seven feet.[39]
Corrector Lens Retaining Ring
In the company’s advertisement in the November 1961 issue of Natural History magazine, Questar noted that “a newly developed retaining ring now prevents the sensitive front lens from rotating, while it remains completely unconstrained in all other directions.”[40] Later in May 1965, Questar explained its paired optics sets in further detail. “Each lens-mirror set is held in only one rotational position. The lens must drop off-axis by .0015 inch, and then be free of all constraint in its precision cell, since any slightest pressure from a retaining ring would derogate the image. Thus the lens of every Questar ever made should rattle when you shake the tube.”[41]
Coatings
The primary mirror and secondary spot were vacuum-flash coated with a layer of aluminum. Only after performance testing was a protective silicon monoxide hard coating applied to protect the aluminum from oxidizing.[42]
Out of concern that owners would overclean the corrector lens and damage the antireflective coating if it were applied to its front surface, only the inside surface of the corrector lens was coated with magnesium fluoride. Its outside surface was bare glass. Other optical elements inside the telescope also received a coating of magnesium fluoride.[43]
The Care of Optical Surfaces
Considering all the hard work he put into delivering the finest optics he could get, Braymer made sure his clients knew how to care for fine optical surfaces properly. He closed his 1954 Questar booklet by writing “that the purchase of a telescope is in reality the selection of an heirloom, for fine instruments are made to weather time.” Such instruments thus deserve proper care. First, one must resist the temptation to engage in unnecessary and excessively frequent cleaning. Indeed, “the way to preserve a fine optical surface is to restrain as best we can our natural desire for cleanliness. Since we cannot avoid the presence of a little dust, perhaps it is wise to learn to live with a bit of it.” When optics do require cleaning, a light touch is essential. “Questar should exceed their useful life with only ordinary care. A nice thought, too. What other of man’s engines is built with such a life expectancy? Our thoughtful care may some day thus give pleasure to our great-great grandchildren.”[44] By providing an informational service in his comments on how the optics of the Questar telescope should be cared for, Braymer also took the opportunity to sing the praises of its optics. And if a Questar was not to fall into the hands of an owner’s great-great grandchildren, then surely another person who was to become its owner would appreciate the longevity of Questar’s optics and the care that prior owners had given it.
Control Box
The control box was the embodiment of “Questar’s basic concept of merging telescope and accessory, of the finger-tip control of auxiliary optical elements built right into the instrument.”[45] Indeed, the instrument’s control box distinguished it from most other telescopes. Not only did its features provide the user a maximum amount of convenience and versatility. It also enabled a unique observing experience unlike anything that more conventional instruments could offer.
Until early 1956, Questar polished the control box’s aluminum-silicon housing and left it finished as bare metal. Afterwards, the company applied a coat of a silver paint. It made its focus knobs and control levers from 24S-T4 aluminum and 302 stainless steel.[46]
Finder System
Emerging from patent applications that Braymer filed in the late 1940s, the control box that Questar ultimately implemented on the company’s production telescopes had most of the features that appeared in those earlier documents. It included a finder system with a pick-off mirror that was mounted at a 45-degree angle on the bottom side of the telescope opposite the eyepiece. With the internal prism diagonal shifted aside, the mirror directed light to a finder lens on the bottom of the control box housing. That light would then pass up to the eyepiece. The housing for its optical elements could be rotated up and down to achieve sharp focus.[47]
The construction of the finder mirror assembly changed over the course of the first year of production. The initial design appeared as early as June 1951. It featured a bracket-mounted finder mirror that swung in and out of position beneath the finder lens. This arrangement allowed the user to move the mirror out of position to prevent potentially damaging sunlight from reaching into the control box—and, more importantly, the user’s eye—when a Questar was being used for solar observing.[48]
It didn’t take long for Braymer and his colleagues to realize that this bracket-mounted finder mirror could easily be knocked out of alignment with the rest of the finder system’s components.[49] By January 1955, Questar had redesigned the finder mirror mount using a much studier approach.[50] In a letter to one of his prospective customers dated September 9, 1955, Lawrence Braymer described the change in design that had occurred after the company printed its Questar booklet in May 1954. He wrote that “the current model has a metal cage for the finder mirror which keeps this auxiliary reflector in permanent collimation.”[51] This much heavier and more robust U-shaped finder mirror cage featured four screws for fine-tuning the position of the mirror. It attached to the control box housing by another set of four screws.[52]
The same month that Braymer wrote to his potential customer, Questar ran an advertisement in Sky and Telescope that featured an illustration of this new finder mirror cage. The image appears to have been a modification of another photograph that the company had last used in its March 1955 advertisement in Sky and Telescope. Perhaps in an effort to showcase the new design, Questar rotated the barrel’s bottom towards the camera.[53] In the future, Questar would often forego the cost of generating new promotional images by modifying existing photography to reflect design changes or new accessories.
Diagonal
Another important feature of Questar’s control box was a diagonal that moved side to side by means of a lever. With the diagonal engaged, light from the telescope’s main optics was directed up to the eyepiece. With it moved to the side, the same eyepiece could receive light from the finder system, and the main optics could send light to an accessory attached to the control box’s rear axial port.
At first, Questar used an image-correct Amici prism for the diagonal. Braymer probably acquired this component from surplus suppliers at a low cost. Since he intended his telescope to be operated at magnifications not exceeding 160x, he found the performance of the Amici prism, which erected the image at the expense of a small loss in light transmission, to be acceptable.[54]
But as existing stock ran low and new prisms had to be manufactured at a much higher cost, Braymer switched to another material. Around June 1959, the company began offering the option of a “slightly more efficient star diagonal prism,” one that still erected the image but flipped it side to side.[55] By the time the company printed its November 1960 booklet, Questar had begun to offer the option to include “the less efficient, more complex Amici full-erecting prism” at an additional cost of $50.[56] The company continued to offer this option into the late 1960s. At the same time, Questar often replaced original Amici prisms with star diagonals on many early instruments when their owners sent them in for service over the years.[57]
Barlow Lens
Operated by another lever on the control box was an image-magnifying Barlow lens. In its November 1960 booklet, Questar wrote that its “built-in negative achromat or short-focus Barlow amplifying lens is the one discovered by the late great lover of fine optics, Frank Goodwin. He sold thousands to all who use telescopes and probably has changed observing habits permanently. Eccentrically advertised and wretchedly mounted, each lens was nevertheless the finest procurable, and for his insistence that every last one be perfect, we honor the memory of an old friend.”[58]
The built-in Barlow lens roughly doubled the size of an image compared to what the eyepiece could deliver by itself, although that factor varied over the decades. For higher magnifications, Questar suggested elevating the eyepiece further above its eyepiece holder by means of one or more camera coupling extension tubes and an eyepiece holder ring.[59]
Together, the finder system, movable diagonal, and Barlow lens enabled the user to switch between a low-power finder mode and two higher-power magnifications simply by operating two small levers. “Thus a finger-flick at any time brings either system’s image to the eyepiece. The user never has to grope in the dark for a finder eyepiece and stand practically on his head to use it.” An additional lever moved an achromatic negative lens in place, doubling an eyepiece’s power and extending “Questar’s effective focal length from 42 to 84 inches.” As a result, “Questar has two focal lengths, and each eyepiece has three powers instead of one.”[60]
Axial Port
Another key component of Questar’s control box was its rear axial port. Beginning in May 1952 if not earlier, it measured 0.925" wide and had 32 threads per inch.[61] With use of a coupler and appropriate adapters, one could attach a camera body to the telescope and take pictures of whatever one could visually observe in the eyepiece.
Focuser
The earliest production Questar telescopes featured a pair of side-mounted knobs that operated a cam-style focusing mechanism. Not long after production began, however, Braymer realized that a far simpler approach was to machine a single centerless threaded rod that was parallel to the optical axis of the tube. Some very early production units that used this newer arrangement feature two rivets that plugged the holes that were added for the earlier design. One can see these rivets upon close examination of images that appeared in the earliest Questar advertisements and promotional literature of 1954 and early 1955.[62]
However it was arranged, the focusing mechanism connected with the primary mirror’s mounting assembly and moved it back and forth along the telescope’s central baffle tube.
Eyepieces
Questar’s eyepieces enabled visual observation of astronomical or terrestrial objects. With each instrument, the company included two oculars. One was a 26mm Koenig eyepiece with three lens elements and a 50-degree apparent field of view. Another was a 13mm Erfle eyepiece with five elements (two doublets and a singlet) and a 75-degree apparent field of view. Attaching to the control box by means of an aluminum adapter tube with male 0.925 threads on its bottom and female 1 3/16 x 32 threads on top, the eyepieces were dedicated for use only with a Questar. Each had a knurled top that allowed a user to achieve focus in finder mode by rotating the top housing along a threaded bottom half, thereby moving it up and down.[63]
Questar also made a black stamped metal “finder-aid” available for installation near the eyepiece’s field stop. With four pointers that appeared along the field of view edge, this addition enabled the user to center objects in the eyepiece more quickly and accurately at low power before switching to higher-power views.[64] Upon customer’s request, the company also provided a cross-hair spanning the field of view edge to edge.[65]
Until around 1956, Questar included eyepieces marked “40X” and “80X” with diopter indicator lines ranging from +2 to -4. Later, the company simply marked them as “40-80X” and “80-160X” without diopter indicators.[66]
Like he had done with sourcing corrector lenses through Bushnell’s optical manufacturers in Japan, Braymer also worked with Bushnell to import lenses for Questar’s eyepieces. Some examples bear the marking “B.O.L. JAPAN,” which stands for a partnership that Bushnell Optical Laboratory had with Oriental Trading, the export division of Toyo Jitsugyo KK of Japan.[67]
Using the eyepiece design his friend Norbert Schell had created for the Questar,[68] Braymer maximized economy and reduced costs as much as possible. He selected binocular lenses for use in the 80x eyepiece and spotting scope eyepiece lenses for the 40x eyepiece. It was far less expensive for Braymer to use existing lenses already in production by another company than it would have been to make his own.[69]
Telescope Barrel
From Synthane to Aluminum
For the telescope’s barrel, Questar initially used Synthane, a laminate material that was generally made from paper- or fabric-like layers of asbestos, cotton, or glass held together with resin.[70] The company’s advertisement that appeared in the February 1957 issue of Sky and Telescope indicates that the barrel was constructed of “Synthane, Grade XX, fabricated for Questar on mandrel, O.D. ground to tolerance and engine turned. [It was] stabilized after fabrication by controlled process.”[71] Synthane Taylor was the company’s supplier for the material.[72]
Not long after it had begun production using Synthane tubes, however, the company began exploring other options. Perhaps indicating that Questar was considering alternatives even at a very early point, a shipping label on a package from Alcoa Corporation shows that the company received 56 extruded flat-bottom aluminum shells in September 1954, a handful of months after Questar began marketing its telescope.[73] This small piece of evidence invites speculation that Lawrence Braymer was not entirely happy with using Synthane and continued to experiment with other materials not long after the beginning of production.
However he came to a decision, Braymer ultimately transitioned away from Synthane. In February 1958, John Schneck completed a machining schematic that specified details for an aluminum telescope barrel and rear cell.[74] By the time the company published its advertisement in the November 1958 issue of Sky and Telescope, Questar had already begun making its telescope barrel out of “forged aluminum” that was fully machined along its length.[75] Alcoa continued to be the company’s source for these tubes.[76]
Machining
With a number of his suppliers located well outside of eastern Pennsylvania and even beyond the shores of the United States, Lawrence Braymer was not shy about establishing business relationships with individuals in far-off locations. But some of his other suppliers and skilled craftsmen were located just down the road.
One such individual was Gerald Fegley, a local machinist who grew up in a house on the corner of High and Edgewood Streets in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. A lifelong resident of the area, he engaged with a number of local organizations including the service-oriented Pottstown Optimist Club, the Elks Lodge, the Pottstown Historical Society, and Saint James Lutheran Church. In addition to being an avid fisherman and gardener, Fegley shared Braymer’s enthusiasm for photography. He was in his mid- to late thirties when he began contributing to Braymer’s effort to build the Questar telescope.[77]
At the beginning of his career, Fegley had already worked for another employer before he started his own machine shop. His business eventually grew to the point where he employed several other machinists.[78]
Earning the respect of Questar’s founder, Fegley’s work stood out so much that Braymer featured him in Questar’s marketing. In an advertisement that appeared in the January 1961 issue of Sky and Telescope, Braymer wrote that, “rather than be superintendent in the die shop of a great die-casting firm,” Fegley chose instead “to make parts for Questar in his own shop.” The company highlighted Fegley’s craftsmanship by including a conspicuous photograph of numerous telescope barrels that his shop turned out from forged aluminum shells on an engine lathe. After machining each tube, Fegley then sent them to a paint shop. There, workers sprayed “a newly developed nonreflective paint” onto the inside of the tube.[79]
Meanwhile, Fegley would machine a piece of 24S-T4 aluminum alloy to fit a ring that, together, formed the tube’s rear plate. “Stronger than steel, each composite plate is threaded to fit one tube. Both are numbered, and we now have a removable tube, held to its closure by large accurate threads we can trust.” Workers then prepared a central hole for receiving the central tube that supported the primary mirror. With a tolerance of ±0.0001 inches, “the matching tube, 3 inches long, fits its mate so well that it will pump air without a lubricant.” Fegley’s last step was to press “a lens cell into each barrel. The final cuts are not taken on the lens seat until the entire assembly rotates as a unit on the engine lathe with the inner tube running dead true.” The cell is black anodized, everything is reassembled, tested, and returned to Questar in individual cases.[80]
Upon checking for alignment after installing the light baffle into the tube, Ernest Arndt, the company’s master mechanic, would rarely find any assemblies that were “off-center by more than .0008 inch, a quite permissible amount.” With Fegley and many others doing their part, the entire machining and assembly process resulted in an instrument that could deliver to its owner “perfect diffraction images year after year. You will never have to have it realigned.”[81]
Bristol Screw Fasteners
The fasteners that Questar used during its first decades to link the telescope tube to its mount were chrome-nickel stainless steel Bristol screws, which featured a unique multi-spline socket head. “We think them the finest procurable,” the company wrote in its 1960 booklet. “If they are new to you, it is because their quality and cost keep them out of mass-produced articles. They hold so hard that when unscrewed they let go with a sharp cracking sound.”[82] Questar also used small Bristol fasteners as set screws for various control knobs, and the company included a small Bristol spline wrench with new telescopes so their owners could make minor adjustments.
Mount
Lawrence Braymer wrote in his 1954 booklet that, by virtue of its short barrel, Questar resisted the shakes and wobbles that hindered telescopes with longer tubes.[83] But the length of the tube was only one element that contributed to its stability. Questar’s distinctive fork mount and base held the telescope firmly in place even under windy and inclement conditions.
Side Arms
The production Questar telescope has always featured a fork mount with two side arms. But earlier prototypes used a very different approach.
Not long after he incorporated Questar in April 1950, Braymer continued to develop a single side-arm design that first appeared in patents he filed in the late 1940s. One document dated July 1951 depicts a single-arm casting with open sides and no ridges. Another document dated March 1952 shows a capstan screw knob for connecting a removable side arm to the turntable.[84] This arrangement persisted into the middle of 1953, when Braymer created his prototype Questar featuring a telescope with a single-arm mount and a tube that stowed into an aluminum case.
But the single-armed design was short lived. By the fall of 1953, Braymer had abandoned it in favor of a dual-armed fork mount. Documentation from September 1953 describes a preliminary turntable casting with two side arms. Another document created a month later shows the final and current version of this configuration.[85]
In an advertisement that first appeared in the December 1977 issue of Sky and Telescope, the company remembered the process by which Lawrence Braymer gravitated to this design. In his patent #2,649,791, Braymer described a one-arm support, but he also outlined a “fork-within-a-fork,” which later became Questar’s standard method for mounting. At first, the single arm design was his choice. But before long, he discovered by way of prototypes that a steady, vibration-free mount “could not be achieved with a one-arm support.” Other advantages became obvious. The design not only allowed the barrel to rotate 360 degrees around its optical axis, thus allowing the user to position the eyepiece at a comfortable angle. It also “made possible the rotating perpetual star chart, which is coordinated with the sidereal clock.”[86]
Braymer himself commented on this design in his first Questar booklet in 1954. “The barrel is supported wholly at its rear closure by Questar’s patented double-U form of fork mounting,” he wrote. Separating the two parts that supported the telescope’s tube from the side arms were nylon bearings, which enabled “the finest, smoothest turning” and which helped ensure that “no lubrication should be required for periods of many years.”[87]
The edges of the early Questar’s aluminum side arms were polished to a high-gloss shine, and their recessed surfaces were coated with a silver paint.[88]
Logo Badges
Perhaps the most conspicuous feature of the Questar telescope’s side arms was its logo badge. The earliest models produced between 1954 and early 1956 had red, silver, and blue badges with the Questar logo, specifications for effective focal length and focal ratio, and place of manufacture. Questar affixed these logos directly on top of the edges of a circular ridge using contact cement. Their position made them prone to being knocked off if they were bumped or snagged.[89]
As marked by their first appearance in the company’s advertisement in the May 1956 issue of Sky and Telescope, Questar transitioned to a side arm badge that was seated inside a central recess at the center of the fork arm. The company’s logo was etched and filled with white enamel on a solid red anodized background.[90] Questar used this design until the spring of 1963,[91] when the company presumably exhausted its supply of the older badges and transitioned to ones that matched its updated branding which had first appeared in the June 1961 issue of Sky and Telescope.[92]
A close examination of an early marketing photograph that first appeared in Questar’s advertisement in the November 1954 issue of Sky and Telescope reveals that a similar logo badge appears on the central cap of the base’s turntable.[93]
Slow Motion Controls and Tracking
All fork-mounted Questar telescopes have a full complement of features that enable users to move the telescope for coarse aiming, make slow-motion adjustments using manual knobs, and track celestial objects by means of an electric motor drive. Along with various levers on its control box, Questar’s slow motion controls transformed the observing experience “from drudgery into relaxed pleasure.”[94]
Lawrence Braymer beamed with obvious pride for Questar’s slow motion mechanism. In the company’s newsletter-style advertisement that appeared in the July 1959 issue of Sky and Telescope, he told his readers “about Questar’s wonderfully smooth slow motions that have no backlash, work all the time, and constitute their own safety slipping clutches.”[95]
In a style of prose that only Lawrence Braymer could muster, he began by laying out the problem he solved in glowing, highly personal terms:
If you have ever used slow motions of this continuous 360° type, you will, of course, understand why we fussed around so long to get our drives exactly right. We know that nobody will continue so long to use a contraption that gives more trouble than pleasure, because, being human, we prefer fun to work any old time. So if our baby is anything, it is the sweetest-working little rig you ever lent an eyeball to. Compared to some, the luxury it gives you is practically sinful, thank goodness, so you’ll use it all the time.[96]
Alongside a closeup image of the side-arm pinion, Braymer went on at length to describe its construction along with the spring-loaded bushing and the stainless-steel disks that were all part of the slow-motion control assembly:
Here is shown the 3/16-inch-diameter pinion whose tiny V-groove pinches the edges of two 4.1-inch-diameter stainless-steel disks. The large round object, smaller than your little fingernail, serves as bearing for the pinion shaft, and as spring-loaded [eccentric] bushing to exert the necessary pressure by rotating clockwise. This view is inside the right-hand fork; on the outside the pinion shaft carries the skirted control knob. Between the stainless driven disks is a third of less diameter, which acts as spaces and fulcrum for the pinching squeeze exerted on the rim. This is our famous friction drive, whose velvet feel will warm the heart of any lover of fine instruments.
Simple, isn’t it? Oho! That’s what we thought six years ago after we had given it some 30,000 revolutions under load without a sign of wear. What a drive! No backlash or dust-jamming or loosening, as with gears. But like many simple things, our fine drive had strict requirements. If the pinion’s temper is too soft, it quickly wears. If heat-treated to too great a Rockwell number, it will fracture from excessive brittleness. The size and angle of the pulley notch is very critical, to match the total thickness of three disks of stainless steel. So these must be held to plus or minus two ten-thousandths of an inch. The hardness or temper of these disks is also very critical, so here is what we do: We buy standard warehouse, full-hard-temper 18-8, type-302 stainless-steel strip of a certain greater thickness, then send it to a company in New England which has a little micro-rolling mill. It rolls are only 4.5 inches wide, just big enough, and after a few passes our steel has just the right degree of thickness and extra hard spring. An accurately ground $800 die is used to turn this very tough ribbon into perforated circles, one-third of which get turned down on the engine lathe. Not so critical is the [eccentric] bushing, which works best when made of marine bronze, with a brass arm silver-soldered to it. Lubrication is with “Molycote.”
Finally, both outside disks are hand-deburred, and polished on the engine lathe until they look the way we want them to. Then, upon assembly, each drive is “broken in” until it works and feels just right. At this writing some 300 pinions are being heat-treated first and having their V-grooves ground later, a method which costs more but may produce a finer piece. Slipping clutches in both side-arms and base use the “stickage” property of a thin sheet of nylon to resist first gross movement before sliding easily. This may keep you “on target” during an accidental jar, a useful feature quite unfelt when knobs are turned.
Yes, this is going to a lot of trouble to perfect just part of our machine. We tried an awfully large number of materials, and scrapped pieces of metal by the thousand, before we learned what not to do. It cost us a king’s ransom when pennies were in short supply, but we have never for a minute had regrets. Because this drive is just the thing our Questar needed, and we can just about guarantee it will spoil you for any other kind.[97]
The earliest Questars featured control knobs on the fork mount’s side arms with hollowed out centers. But a trio of documents from late December 1954 suggest the timing by which the company moved to its current design with filled-in centers.[98]
For tracking astronomical objects as they arced across the sky, the Questar telescope also featured a drive that was powered by a synchronous electric motor that was built into its base, one made by Cramer Controls Corporation. A “supreme touch of practical luxury,” as Braymer wrote, it held an object motionless in the eyepiece’s field of view by driving the instrument’s right-ascension motion at a sidereal rate. With the “lightest possible load on driving gear teeth, low tooth pressure and good balance,” the built-in motor drove the mount around its “friction-free polar axis” and held photographic equipment steady while preventing “microscopic jerks and jumps” that would ruin long-exposure images. “Liberated by this modern refinement from the necessity of manual following, the Questar owner is free to concentrate wholly upon observing and the problem of perception near the limit of vision. He will, of course, improve his visual abilities with practice, and will become better able to enjoy Questar’s powers of resolution to the full.”[99]
Base and Tabletop Tripod Legs
By July 1953, Lawrence Braymer had settled on a casting for the Questar telescope’s bell-shaped base. Five months later, he completed a design for three slip-fit tabletop tripod legs that would support the telescope.[100] Hand turned and bored on a jig, Questar’s base was made of sand-casted, heat-treated, and corrosion-resistant aluminum.[101] The tripod legs stowed conveniently in the telescope’s case when not in use.
Here, Gerald Fegley contributed again using skills that only an experienced machinist could wield. In an advertisement that appeared in the November 1961 issue of Sky and Telescope, the company described how Fegley and other suppliers produced Questar’s mount base and tripod legs. To cast the bell-shaped base, Boose Aluminum Foundry in Reamstown, Pennsylvania, used Alcoa No. 356 aluminum alloy “tempered to the T-6 condition.” The base material consisted of 7% silicon, allowing the material to flow freely in its molten state and have exceptional resistance to the marring effects of perspiration, sea salts, and overall wear and tear. After being cast, the bases went to Fegley’s Pottstown shop, where he turned off “almost one-half the metal in accurate machining” that he performed by hand. He then drilled several holes in the base some of which were tapped for threaded fasteners. Others were precisely bored, reamed, and burnished to accept two of Questar’s three slip-fit tripod legs.[102]
The third leg inserted into another hole in the middle of the base’s bottom. Its adjustable length enabled a user to equatorially align the telescope. It was a design that appeared in company documentation as early as December 1953.[103]
To produce those legs, Questar first went to the warehouse of a Philadelphia metals supplier and selected tubes whose diameters and ovality varied by only 0.003 inches. Next, the Micromatic Company in Trenton, New Jersey, received the tubes for cutting, grinding, and milling. Workers there also added a long slot into the shorter tubes for later use in making the tube extension assembly that included a captive knurled knob. The tripod legs were then anodized by a shop in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, before making their way back to Questar’s factory in New Hope.[104]
Upon their return to the final assembly shop, the process of hand-fitting legs to bases began. With all the necessary parts in front of them, Questar employees Peter Dodd, who was the son of Marguerite Braymer, and James Reichert, whose son would also work for the company years later, sat at a workbench as they chose tripod legs at random. As they did so, they tested them with each individual base to ensure that they fit “with just the proper feel. And feel is the right word to use, for we take leave of measurements at this point and work for the fit that feels just right.” When holes and tripod legs matched, Dodd and Reichert added a butyl rubber tip to each leg, placed them in an English leather case, and tagged each set so that they remained matched with one specific base. “There are no secrets about making the best telescope in the world,” Braymer wrote. “We try to make every single part just as fine as possible.”[105]
Gerald Fegley continued to supply machined parts to Questar until the late 1960s or early 1970s, when another Pottstown native and Elks Lodge member, Robert Schwenk, took over much of Questar’s machining operations for the next three decades.[106] Reaching the age of one hundred three months before he passed away in February 2018, Fegley never lived anywhere but his native Pottstown.[107] He and many others like him made important contributions to realizing Lawrence Braymer’s vision for a fine telescope and a unique observing experience.
Auxiliary Mounting Options
In addition to the tabletop tripod legs that came with every Questar, the instrument’s owner could use other means to hold it in position.
One clever way in which Questar doubled the utility of the tripod leg hole plugs was to use them for hanging the instrument on an automobile’s window. Crediting Dr. Warner Schlesinger, the director of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, for the idea behind this innovation,[108] Questar later dedicated one of its advertisements to illustrating how this was done. In the May 1957 issue of Sky and Telescope, the company wrote that, as spring emerged, many Questar owners would surely travel with their highly portable instruments sitting in the back seat of their car. By pulling out the leg hole plugs and threading them into two holes on the bottom of the base, one could hang one’s instrument off the side window and make a two-ton car a handy and steady place to mount a Questar.[109]
An owner could also use a solid photographic tripod. Drawing the company’s attention in an advertisement that appeared in the September 1956 issue of Sky and Telescope, the German-made Linhof Professional De Luxe earned the praise of Questar as its choice for the most stable tripod the company was able to identify among the many others it had tried.[110] Linhof tripods would appear regularly in Questar promotional literature throughout the rest of the 1950s and 1960s.
At first, Questar telescopes could not attach directly to a tripod. The company sold an auxiliary base plate with a central hole that was threaded to accept a tripod screw. The plate attached to the base of the instrument by means of the two threaded leg hole plugs that one used for hanging a Questar off a car window.[111] But starting with instrument #0-685 (1960), the company added a threaded post directly to the inside of the Questar’s base for accepting a quarter-inch-20 tripod screw.[112]
Base Plate
The bottom base plate of the earliest Questar telescopes were composed of black Synthane disks. But probably because this material was prone to cracking,[113] the company switched to a more durable brushed aluminum base plate in 1959.[114]
A few years earlier, Questar had also changed the kind of information the company included on those base plates. Upon completing work on each of the earliest production instruments, an individual would hand-etch the unit’s serial number, specifications about the built-in motor drive, and the numbers of those patents that Lawrence Braymer had been issued up to that point in time.[115] By 1957, Questar had dispensed with indicating anything on the telescope’s base plate except its serial number, which had begun following a pattern that showed the last digit of the unit’s manufacture year along with a unique sequence number.[116]
With these hand-made etchings, each Questar “has the autograph of its creator,” as Jim Perkins eloquently noted.[117]
Navigation Aids
If there was one single piece that made the Questar telescope stand out as a work of art more than any other, perhaps it was its perpetual star map dew shield. Not only was it a thing of beauty, but it also served a functional purpose as a navigation tool that relieved the observer from fumbling with star charts. Moreover, when the user slid it forward, it functioned as a dew shield. Doing so also revealed a moon map on the telescope’s barrel.[118]
Against a deep blue background, etched constellation, declination, and right ascension lines were filled with lilac enamel and accompanied by more etched markings filled with pale-yellow enamel that represented the brightest stars in the night sky. Its sapphire-like plated surface glowed. The aluminum sheet was affixed to a seamless Synthane tube which was internally flocked with a black felt-like material. The moon map on the telescope’s barrel had a similar anodized finish with etched and enamel-filled markings.[119]
Metal Etching Corporation of Brooklyn, New York, was the supplier for Questar’s star map dew shield and telescope barrel moon map skin.[120]
Around the spring of 1961, Questar reversed the orientation of the moon map. Units from prior years showed lunar details with the moon’s northerly pole positioned towards the forward end of the telescope’s barrel and its east side to the left. Afterwards, however, the company flipped the moon map both horizontally and vertically so that its south pole was on top and its west side to the left.[121] This change coincided roughly with Questar’s implementation of a 90-degree star diagonal, which erected the image but flipped it horizontally, as a replacement for the image-correct Amici prism the company had used in production telescope throughout the 1950s.
In addition to its star map dew shield and moon map, Questar telescopes also came equipped with two other navigation aids that users of traditional telescopes would immediately recognize. Around the top of the left fork mount side arm was a declination setting circle for aiming the telescope in an up-down motion. On the base of the telescope’s mount, one also found a right ascension setting circle. As the telescope’s electric motor tracked the earth’s rotation, the setting circle moved with the instrument, thus allowing the user to be free of having to reset it before moving to the next celestial object. The finish of this navigation aid resembled that of the star map, moon map, and other anodized and etched metal parts.
Accessories
Along with a pair of eyepieces, a set of tabletop tripod legs, a pair of case latch keys marked “30” on one side and “Cheney England” on the other, and a small Bristol spline wrench for tightening small set screws that held various knobs in place, Questar shipped new telescopes with a number of other accessories.
Solar Filter
Perhaps it was natural for the chain-smoking Lawrence Braymer to use a cigarette to demonstrate the danger of an unfiltered telescope. He often made a display of the risk to one’s eye by squaring an optical mirror with the Sun, holding a cigarette at the point where concentrated light came to a focus, and lighting its end on fire. “After seeing the flame at the end of the cigarette,” Questar commented in its 1972 booklet, “one needed no further warning of what could happen to the human eye should those rays be viewed through the telescope, or should an old-fashioned glass filter over the eyepiece suddenly crack from the intense heat.”[122]
One accessory that made the Questar telescope so unique was its included solar filter. Amateur telescopes of the era sometimes came with dangerous eyepiece solar filters that were prone to failure. On the other hand, metalized glass solar filters were expensive to produce. More often than not, only those institutions or persons with ample resources could afford them.[123] Questar’s approach was to include an accessory with a modest 1.5-inch off-axis filter that attached to the front of the telescope.
In its 1954 booklet, the company claimed that the chromium material of its solar filter produced a virtually straight transmission curve, allowing the observer to see all colors at equally reduced intensity. And by preventing the barrel from heating, no internal convection currents or warped optics spoiled the image. As a result, “the sun’s face may now be studied with Questar in safety, comfort and steadiness of detail previously unknown.” And not only was Questar’s electric drive useful for maintaining the Sun’s image in the eyepiece, but it also simplified group demonstrations and classroom observation by freeing the instructor from having to make constant adjustments for each individual who steps up to the eyepiece.[124]
Detailing how the company made their solar filters, Questar noted it its 1960 booklet that “each uncoated disk must test to absolute invisibility. To keep them thin as window glass, they are made by optically contacting to a heavy flat. To eliminate the pinholes inevitable in all evaporated metal films, the full-aperture disks are three times coated and twice hand-rubbed.”[125]
The way that the solar filter assembly attached to the front of the telescope evolved during the company’s earliest years of production. At first, Questar developed a solar filter with three gasketed tabs that pressed against the inner sides of the corrector lens cell. After a few years, the company adopted a design that threaded far more securely onto the corrector lens cell.[126]
Before long, another solar filtering option appeared. Company documentation shows that Questar had begun to develop a full-aperture solar filter by October 1957.[127] Along with its smaller off-axis filter that came standard, the company illustrated this new accessory, which featured a ventilated filter cell and plane-parallel glass, in its October 1958 booklet.[128] And in its advertisement appearing in the May 1959 issue of Sky and Telescope, Questar announced the availability of its full-aperture solar filter complete with a walnut case. The addition was not trivial: it cost $150,[129] or more than a week’s income for the median U.S. household.[130]
Instruction Booklet
At first, Questar’s instructions were simply printed on a single sheet of paper with advice that supplemented the company’s promotional booklet. Later in the 1950s, Questar included a proper eighteen-page booklet that was sized for placement on top of the telescope tube as it was stored in its case. In late 1961, the company expanded that booklet to include 26 pages of detailed information for using the Questar telescope.
English Saddle Leather Case
As a final touch of luxury, Questar included a stitched cowhide saddle leather case made for the company in Staffordshire, England. It featured a deep tan color, an interior lined in red velvet, and leather pouches for accessories. The rim of the telescope’s base was held in place by two eccentric Synthane rings that secured it to the bottom of the case.[131]
For protecting the finish of the instrument’s leather case, Questar later added a heavy vinyl luggage cover with drawstrings and metal grommets.[132]
In so many ways, the Questar telescope was ahead of its time. Its Maksutov-Cassegrain optics were a fresh and modern departure from typical refractors and reflectors of its era, its self-contained, electrically-driven mount held it with grace, and its multitude of built-in accessories made it a highly versatile instrument. But in one particular area, the Questar telescope’s usefulness was truly groundbreaking.
Notes
1 Contemporary Authors: A Bio-bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television and Other Fields (Gale Research Company, 1969), 307, https://archive.org/details/contemporaryauth5-8gale/page/307/mode/1up, accessed June 3, 2022; Foremost Women in Communications: A Biographical Reference Work on Accomplished Women in Broadcasting, Publishing, Advertising, Public Relations, and Allied Professions (New York: Foremost Americans Publishing Corporation, 1970), 75, https://archive.org/details/foremostwomeninc0000unse/page/75/mode/1up, accessed June 3, 2022; Charles Shaw, “Larry Braymer: ‘In Quest of the Stars,’” New Hope Gazette, March 14, 1985, 32, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019; Who’s Who in America, 1992-1993 (New Providence: Marquis Who’s Who, 1992), volume 1, 392, https://archive.org/details/isbn_0837901480_1/page/392/mode/1up, accessed June 3, 2022.
2 Dun and Bradstreet, report for Questar Corporation, March 25, 1958, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/Fred%20K.%20Leisch%20Questar%20/, accessed October 14, 2019; Charles Shaw, “Larry Braymer: ‘In Quest of the Stars,’” New Hope Gazette, March 14, 1985, 32, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019; Herb Drill, “Marguerite Braymer, 85, Questar Corp. co-founder,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 1, 1996, R4, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21814542/the_philadelphia_inquirer/, accessed October 8, 2019.
3 Jim Perkins, Alt-Telescopes-Questar Majordomo list message, November 11, 1997, digest 85, “Jim Perkins Questar data.doc,” https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019.
4 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, April 1958, 301; World Space Directory, ed. Donald W. Dean (Washington, D.C.: American Aviation Publications, Inc., Spring 1966), 334, https://archive.org/details/worldspacedirect0004dona/page/334/mode/2up, accessed November 28, 2022; World Space Directory, ed. Donald W. Dean (Washington, D.C.: American Aviation Publications, Inc., Fall 1966), 344, https://archive.org/details/worldspacedirect0005dona/page/344/mode/2up, accessed December 14, 2022; World Space Directory, ed. Donald W. Dean (Washington, D.C.: American Aviation Publications, Inc., Spring 1967), 357, https://archive.org/details/worldspacedirect0005vari/page/356/mode/2up, accessed November 28, 2022; World Space Directory, ed. Donald W. Dean (Washington, D.C.: American Aviation Publications, Inc., Fall 1967), 350, https://archive.org/details/worldspacedirect0006dona_x3v2/page/350/mode/2up, accessed November 28, 2022; World Space Directory, ed. Donald W. Dean (Washington, D.C.: American Aviation Publications, Inc., Spring 1968), 335, https://archive.org/details/worldspacedirect0006dona/page/334/mode/2up, accessed November 28, 2022; World Space Directory, ed. Donald W. Dean (Washington, D.C.: American Aviation Publications, Inc., Fall 1968), 343, https://archive.org/details/worldspacedirect0007dona/page/342/mode/2up, accessed December 14, 2022.
5 Charles Shaw, “Larry Braymer: ‘In Quest of the Stars,’” New Hope Gazette, March 14, 1985, 3, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019.
6 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, April 1961, 223.
7 Rodger Gordon to the author, September 23, 2020.
8 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, July 1959, 523.
9 Gary Seronik, “The Questar 50th Anniversary Edition Telescope,” Sky and Telescope, November 2002, 49-50.
10 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, June 1954, 272-273.
11 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, June 1955, 348-349.
12 Stewart Squires, email message to author, October 28, 2019; “Bushnell Corporation,” Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushnell_Corporation, accessed November 25, 2020; “David P. Bushnell,” Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_P._Bushnell, accessed November 25, 2020.
13 Stewart Squires, online forum posting, Questar Users Group, January 8, 2004, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/conversations/messages/7320, accessed October 13, 2019.
14 O. Richard Norton, “Cave Optical Company,” Sky and Telescope, August 1994, 90; Gary Leonard Cameron, “Public Skies: Telescopes and the Popularization of Astronomy in the Twentieth Century,” PhD diss., (Iowa State University, 2010), 232-233, https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/11795/, accessed September 30, 2019.
15 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript. The actual number of primary mirrors that Cave produced for Questar is somewhat in dispute. Rodger Gordon recalled that Cave himself told him he made 150-200 mirrors for Braymer (Rodger Gordon in discussion with the author, September 3, 2020; Rodger Gordon to the author, September 23, 2020). In addition to noting a document dated April 20, 1954, indicating that Cave made four meniscus corrector lenses, Jim Perkins estimated that Cave made around 600 primary mirrors (Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript). And O. Richard Norton claimed that Cave made 1000 primary mirrors (O. Richard Norton, “Cave Optical Company,” Sky and Telescope, August 1994, 90).
16 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
17 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1955, 164-165.
18 Jim Perkins, email message to author, August 25, 2020.
19 Rodger Gordon in discussion with the author, September 3, 2020; Rodger Gordon to the author, September 23, 2020.
20 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
21 Rodger Gordon in discussion with the author, September 3, 2020; Rodger Gordon to the author, September 23, 2020; “PerkinElmer,” Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PerkinElmer, accessed November 30, 2020.
22 Stewart Squires, online forum posting, Questar Users Group, January 8, 2004, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/conversations/messages/7320, accessed October 13, 2019; J.R. Cumberland, Inc., home page, n.d., https://www.cumberlandoptical.com, accessed November 25, 2020.
23 Stewart Squires, Alt-Telescopes-Questar Majordomo list message, March 17, 1999, digest 345, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/Alt-Telescopes-Questar%20Digests/, accessed October 14, 2019; Stewart Squires, online forum posting, Questar Users Group, January 8, 2004, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/conversations/messages/7320, accessed October 13, 2019; Stewart Squires, email message to author, October 28, 2019; Jim Perkins, email message to author, August 25, 2020.
24 Stewart Squires, Alt-Telescopes-Questar Majordomo list message, March 17, 1999, digest 345, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/Alt-Telescopes-Questar%20Digests/, accessed October 14, 2019.
25 Stewart Squires, online forum posting, Questar Users Group, January 8, 2004, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/conversations/messages/7320, accessed October 13, 2019; Jim Perkins, email message to author, August 25, 2020.
26 J.R. Cumberland, Inc., home page, n.d., https://www.cumberlandoptical.com/, accessed November 25, 2020.
27 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, November 1960, 29.
28 Jim Perkins, email message to author, September 15, 2020; Jim Perkins, email message to author, December 1, 2020.
29 Questar Corporation, “How To Use the National Bureau of Standards Test Chart,” n.d.
30 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1957, 23.
31 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1959, 217.
32 Rodger Gordon to the author, September 23, 2020.
33 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, December 1957, 91.
34 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1958, 41.
35 Jim Perkins, Alt-Telescopes-Questar Majordomo list message, November 11, 1997, digest 85, “Jim Perkins Questar data.doc,” https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019.
36 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1958, 41; “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed November 3, 2019.
37 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, December 1957, 91.
38 Jim Perkins, Alt-Telescopes-Questar Majordomo list message, November 11, 1997, digest 85, “Jim Perkins Questar data.doc,” https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019.
39 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 11.
40 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Natural History, November 1961, inside front cover.
41 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Natural History, May 1965, 62; Questar Corporation, advertisement, Scientific American, May 1965, 150.
42 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1957, 186; “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed November 3, 2019.
43 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1957, 186; Stewart Squires, Alt-Telescopes-Questar Majordomo list message, November 12, 1997, digest 86, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/Alt-Telescopes-Questar%20Digests/, accessed October 14, 2019; “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed November 3, 2019; Ben Langlotz, online forum posting, Cloudy Nights, August 26, 2019, https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/571588-questar-repair-bench-–-qa-thread/?p=9599470, accessed December 27, 2019.
44 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 22, 24.
45 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 11.
46 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1957, 186; Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1958, 41; “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
47 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 5, 2019.
48 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript; Jim Perkins, email message to author, September 14, 2020.
49 Jim Perkins, email message to author, September 14, 2020.
50 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
51 Lawrence Braymer to Charles Littell, September 9, 1955, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019.
52 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
53 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, March 1955, 210-211; Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, September 1955, 472-473.
54 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1957, 186; Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1958, 41; “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
55 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, October 1958, with addenda, June 1959, 28; “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 5, 2019.
56 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, November 1960, 15, 31.
57 Jim Perkins, Alt-Telescopes-Questar Majordomo list message, November 11, 1997, digest 85, “Jim Perkins Questar data.doc,” https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019.
58 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, November 1960, 26.
59 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, October 1958, 15; “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
60 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 11.
61 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
62 Jim Perkins, email message to author, September 14, 2020.
63 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1957, 186; Jim Perkins, Alt-Telescopes-Questar Majordomo list message, November 11, 1997, digest 85, “Jim Perkins Questar data.doc,” https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019; Questar Corporation, “Eyepieces Used by Questar,” n.d., http://www.questarcorporation.com/eyepiece.htm, accessed July 3, 2019; “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed November 3, 2019.
64 Questar Corporation, eyepiece pointer installation instructions, n.d.
65 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
66 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed November 3, 2019.
67 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed November 3, 2019.
68 Stewart Squires, online forum posting, Questar Users Group, January 8, 2004, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/conversations/messages/7320, accessed October 13, 2019.
69 Stewart Squires, email message to author, October 28, 2019; Rodger Gordon in discussion with the author, August 15, 2020.
70 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
71 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1957, 186.
72 Jim Perkins, email message to author, November 30, 2020.
73 Jim Perkins, email message to author, December 1, 2020.
74 Jim Perkins, email message to author, March 2, 2022.
75 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1958, 41.
76 Jim Perkins, email message to author, November 30, 2020.
77 “Gerald Rau Fegley,” Legacy, n.d., https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pottsmerc/obituary.aspx?n=gerald-rau-fegley&pid=188059487&fhid=13032, accessed November 25, 2020; “Gerald R Fegley in the 1940 Census,” Ancestry.com, n.d., https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/Pennsylvania/Gerald-R-Fegley_rvmq6, accessed November 27, 2020.
78 “Gerald Rau Fegley,” Legacy, n.d., https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pottsmerc/obituary.aspx?n=gerald-rau-fegley&pid=188059487&fhid=13032, accessed November 25, 2020.
79 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, January 1961, 43.
80 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, January 1961, 43.
81 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, January 1961, 43.
82 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, November 1960, 24.
83 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 5.
84 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
85 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
86 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, December 1977, inside front cover.
87 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 11, 14.
88 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
89 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
90 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, May 1956, 327; “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
91 As of January 23, 2024, the last Questar known to the author to have the early “☆Questar” red and white side arm logo badge is #3-QTZ-1697, built in the spring of 1963 (online forum posting, Cloudy Nights, January 22, 2024, https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/568428-what-year-was-my-questar-made-serial-number-code/?p=13214257, accessed January 23, 2024).
92 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, June 1961, 347.
93 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1954, 28-29.
94 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 11, 14.
95 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, July 1959, 523.
96 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, July 1959, 523.
97 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, July 1959, 523.
98 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
99 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 5-6; Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, October 1958, 15; Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, January 1959, 148.
100 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
101 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1957, 186.
102 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1961, inside front cover.
103 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
104 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1961, inside front cover.
105 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1961, inside front cover.
106 Jim Perkins, email message to author, November 30, 2020; “John Robert Schwenk,” FindAGrave.com, n.d., https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167183259/john-robert-schwenk, accessed November 30, 2020.
107 “Gerald Rau Fegley,” Legacy, n.d., https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pottsmerc/obituary.aspx?n=gerald-rau-fegley&pid=188059487&fhid=13032, accessed November 25, 2020.
108 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 3.
109 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, May 1957, 358.
110 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, September 1956, 500-501.
111 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, October 1958, 21.
112 Questar Corporation, instruction book, late 1961, 10.
113 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
114 As of June 8, 2023, the latest Questar known to the author to have a Synthane base plate is #9-474. This example clearly shows a Synthane base plate complete with serial number etched onto it in handwriting that is consistent with that of most other examples from the 1950s and early 1960s (“Vintage QUESTAR Catadioptric Photo-Visual Telescope in Original Case + Accessor” [sic], eBay, June 7, 2023, https://www.ebay.com/itm/314635240259, accessed June 8, 2023).
115 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
116 As of July 13, 2021, the first Questar known to the author to have its year of manufacture indicated in its serial number is #7-294, built in 1957 (Ben Langlotz, online forum posting, Cloudy Nights, February 15, 2019, https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/641258-observations-on-servicing-an-old-1957-questar/?p=9148911, accessed July 13, 2021).
117 Jim Perkins, Alt-Telescopes-Questar Majordomo list message, November 11, 1997, digest 85, “Jim Perkins Questar data.doc,” https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019.
118 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 10-11.
119 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1957, 186; Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1958, 41.
120 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 5, 2019; Jim Perkins, email message to author, September 4, 2020.
121 As of July 12, 2021, the last Questar known to the author to have its moon map orientation with the lunar north pole positioned towards the front part of the scope is #1-922, built around the spring of 1961 (“Questar Catadioptic Apochromatic Telescope Variable Focal Length: 45.5" f/13,” eBay, July 7, 2021, https://www.ebay.com/itm/313595466085, accessed July 12, 2021).
122 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, 1972, 7.
123 “Questar Solar Filters,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/questar/products/questsolfilters.html, accessed September 20, 2019.
124 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, May 1954, 6-7.
125 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, November 1960, 17.
126 “Early Production Questar 3-½ Telescopes: 1954 and 1955,” Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/que54-55.html, accessed July 11, 2019.
127 Jim Perkins, “Questar Serial Number Systems” (unpublished manuscript, August 20, 2020), typescript.
128 Questar Corporation, Questar booklet, October 1958, 19.
129 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, May 1959, 392.
130 “Income of Families and Persons in the United States: 1960,” U.S. Census Bureau, January 17, 1962, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1962/demo/p60-037.html, accessed August 14, 2020
131 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1957, 186; Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1958, 41.
132 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, November 1958, 41.