§ 4.3. Marketing and Sales

Magazine Advertising

After Questar established what became a long-standing connection with Sky and Telescope, Natural History, and Scientific American magazines in the 1950s, the company continued under Marguerite Braymer’s leadership to maintain its presence in these publications. The format was remarkably consistent: full-page advertisements ran on the inside front cover of Sky and Telescope while smaller promotions appeared within Natural History and Scientific American. After using a two-thirds-page format in those latter two magazines for years, Questar began using promotions covering one-third of a page beginning with its advertisement in the June-July 1972 issue of Natural History.^[2]

Questar Booklets

More noticeable changes occurred in the company’s finely printed marketing literature. The Questar booklets of this era represented a departure from the dense expository form of prior editions. Printed almost fully in color, these new booklets were filled with images of astronomical, natural, and terrestrial subjects. They were a compelling demonstration of the resolving power of the Questar telescope.

In February 1968, the company announced its newest edition, which “contains more than 100 photographs by Questar owners, 50 in color.”^[3] The booklet’s physical size also grew. Whereas earlier versions of the Questar booklet measured six inches wide and nine inches tall, this new edition measured seven and a half inches wide and ten inches tall. Sometime around 1969, the company made minor revisions to its booklet to reflect new developments with the Questar Seven, most notably the addition of a tabletop fork mount.^[4]

A few years later, the company followed up with yet another substantial overhaul and expansion of its booklet. In March 1972, Questar announced that the new 32-page edition was available. It featured a selection of many new photographs Questar owners had continued to submit to the company.^[5] Although its physical dimensions grew even more—this new edition measured eight and a half inches wide and eleven inches tall—the company aired out its copy. Questar seemed to be intent upon letting the images speak for themselves. It also identified various friends of the company by name and told their personal stories in greater detail.

Price Catalogs

Through 1971, Questar continued the practice it had begun in 1964 by printing two separate pieces of literature: its extended booklet and a more concise one-sheet price catalog. Doing so granted the company more flexibility by using the latter to introduce new products and make price changes as necessary without having to reprint its high-quality, multi-page booklet.

In 1972, Questar split the content it had been including in its price catalog into two pieces: a more detailed six-page Instruments and Accessory brochure, which contained detailed descriptions of the company’s growing collection of products, and a brief two-page Price Catalog.^[6]

In 1974, Questar merged its price list back into a single Instruments and Accessory brochure.^[7] New revisions would appear as needed.

Peter Dodd and Q Camera

In the early to mid-1970s, Questar opened another front in its overall marketing campaign. Peter Dodd, Marguerite Braymer’s son from her first marriage, moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, in his mid- to late 30s and opened Q Camera. In doing so, he extended Questar’s in-person marketing while perhaps also seeking more clement weather than what southeastern Pennsylvania could offer. Taking up retail space at the newly built Daytona Mall on the northwest corner of what is now U.S. Highway 92 and North Nova Road, Dodd later moved his shop up the road to another commercial venue a few blocks away.^[8]

In the company’s magazine advertising, Questar first mentioned its new showroom in the April 1974 issue of Scientific American.^[9] A few months later, the company suggested that “Peter Dodd will be happy to have you drop in and say hello. In addition to the display of Questar telescopes he has a selection of fine cameras and lenses, as well as fresh film and all the other accessories you might need.”^[10]

Questar last mentioned Q Camera in its August 1975 advertisement in Sky and Telescope,^[11] although Dodd’s shop probably existed in Daytona Beach well after that.

Education

In addition to its core themes, the company put new emphasis on educational applications. From the beginning, Questar had always made the case for its telescope’s usefulness in schools and community outreach. But in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it made far more of an explicit marketing pitch to educators.

In September 1966, the company declared that “the Questar telescope is a valuable teaching tool.” As it sold more telescopes to schools and colleges, the company argued that it made sense to buy ten Questars with the same amount of money that one could spend building an observatory with one large instrument. It relayed a testimonial from Curtis Gable, an eighth-grade science teacher who used his own Questar during demonstrations. He later helped to develop a program for other science teachers and students whose interest drove them to form an astronomy club. Participants were active with presenting slide shows and engaging in frequent observing sessions with a variety of telescopes including the Questar. Students were required to complete extensive training before being allowed to use a telescope.^[14]

With heavy use, it was inevitable that a school’s Questar would be sent in for service, although the company claimed that it rarely saw problems more serious than normal wear and tear. Hoping to cultivate a special relationship, Questar even broke with its longstanding resistance to offering discounts by presenting educational institutions with a special rate for service and repair.^[15]

Other instances of the company’s increasing commitment to educational markets appeared. In 1972, Questar squarely targeted instructors in an advertisement it ran in The Planetarium, a publication of the International Society of Planetarium Educators. “Questar’s use as a teaching tool in schools and colleges has become one of its most important functions. Not only does its superb resolution and range of sizes provide all the telescope a science or astronomy class needs, but it is a real favorite with both students and faculty, who no longer have to cope with great cumbersome, trembling instruments. Imagine a rock-steady, fully-mounted, portable observatory that you can put away in the close with the microscopes!”^[16]

Astrophotography

As the 1970s arrived, Questar adjusted its advertising. It pulled back from its use of lengthy blocks of copy and relied more upon eye-catching photographs that did most of the talking. Just as the company had recently worked with a variety of individuals to develop numerous accessories for photography, Questar placed new emphasis on all kinds of imaging. In earlier years, whatever images that appeared in advertisements were most often limited to well-lit subjects: the Moon and the Sun, wildlife, and terrestrial objects. But as Questar’s photographic accessories became more sophisticated, so too did instances of deep-space astrophotography become far more numerous in the company’s advertising.

Deep Space Imaging

During the last half of the 1960s, the company used its magazine advertising to feature the wide-field astrophotography of Robert Little, who mounted a camera piggyback onto his Questar and allowed it to track with the apparent movement of the night sky. In 1971, Questar began featuring images of deep-space objects taken directly through the telescope itself.

Having played a key role in developing the Starguide, Hubert Entrop’s astrophotography began making regular appearances in Questar’s advertising. Once example appeared in Sky and Telescope in the summer of 1971. Using a Field Model piggybacked onto his Duplex, Entrop captured an image of the Great Orion Nebula at prime focus.^[17] Although out of season, the image of this wintertime showcase object Questar included in its advertisement demonstrated possibilities for challenging astrophotography targets.

Lunar Imaging

Questar did not neglect to feature images of bright objects like the Moon. In the July 1971 issue of Sky and Telescope, the company included a detailed photograph of lunar craters Deslandres and Arzachel that Robert Richardson took in April 1971. Questar encouraged readers to compare it with another image that was captured with a five-inch refractor and that appeared in the September 1966 issue of Sky and Telescope. “We are always delighted with photographs of this quality. Questar shows its superb performance even when compared to an instrument that has half again as much theoretical resolving power and twice the light-gathering power.”^[18]

A similar advertisement appeared in the January 1972 issue of Sky and Telescope. Questar highlighted one photograph by Hubert Entrop that highlighted details in the lunar terminator. The company again encouraged comparisons with other photographs captured by large telescopes at professional observatories.^[19]

And in April 1972, Questar altogether omitted written copy from its advertisement in Sky and Telescope.^[20] The detailed full-page image of a sea of lunar craters said all there was to say.

Planetary Imaging

With the added light grasp and better resolution that was possible with the Questar Seven, planetary imaging gained prominence in the company’s marketing literature. In its 1972 booklet, Questar featured several photographs of solar system objects that Dorothy and Ralph Davis, Robert Richardson, and others had submitted to the company.^[21]

In the September 1974 issue of Sky and Telescope, the company highlighted what was possible even with its 3.5-inch telescope. Displaying a photograph of Jupiter by Robert Richardson, Questar marveled at “detail that seems almost unbelievable through a telescope of only 3 1/2" aperture, but you become accustomed to that kind of resolution when you own a Questar.”^[22]

Solar Imaging

Solar imaging and observing received its fair share of attention in Questar’s advertising during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In April 1966, the company reused a layout that was nearly identical to one that had first appeared in the May 1959 issue of Sky and Telescope. Questar retold the story of how Dorothy and Ralph Davis used their telescope at sea level to capture an image that plainly showed solar granulation with a level of detail that was quite remarkable for 3.5 inches of aperture. Although they took their exposure without a solar filter attached to their instrument, Questar reiterated its recommendation that the full-aperture solar filter was best for capturing high-resolution images.^[23]

Not limiting himself to deep-space astrophotography, Hubert Entrop also made his contribution to Questar’s solar-themed promotions. In the Sky and Telescope for November 1971, his image of the Sun appeared in an advertisement that directed readers to view another photograph of the Sun by Entrop in the magazine’s September 1969 issue. Along with sunspot detail, faculae are also plainly visible in the image.^[24] Questar later revealed that Entrop used the same unfiltered method that the Davises used, a rather dangerous method that the company cautioned should be used only by the most experienced observers.^[25]

Solar Eclipse Chasing

The first half of the 1970s saw four total solar eclipses, and Questar was at the ready to highlight how its highly portable telescopes were particularly well suited for chasing them.

On March 7, 1970, a total solar eclipse was visible in Mexico and across much of the U.S. East Coast. Questar was quick to underscore its role in the event. In the May 1970 issue of Sky and Telescope, the company’s advertisement pointed out how many of its telescopes “were at work photographing the eclipse, with individual owners and university teams stationed throughout the path of totality. Coverage by the television networks was accomplished with Questars, both from the ground and from aircraft.” Life magazine for March 20, 1970, included a photograph of the eclipse that Charles Wyckoff captured with a 3.5-inch Questar.^[26]

With hope that the excitement of the March 1970 eclipse was still fresh in the minds of potential buyers, Questar suggested in May 1972 that its telescope was well suited to travel with them to the next eclipse, which was due over eastern Canada in July. “We hope we’ll see you there, with your Questar! If you don’t have yours yet, we can deliver one to you immediately.”^[27]

After the Moon’s shadow passed over Canada on July 10, 1972, Questar assembled another advertisement featuring a photograph of the solar corona by David Baysinger. “Questars were stationed all along the path of totality and from those places where clear skies prevailed, beautiful photographs are coming in.” Tying its product to the next eclipse, which was to pass over Africa the following year, Questar reminded readers to “be sure to take along this unparalleled convenience and versatility.”^[28]

In the wake of the total solar eclipse of June 30, 1973, Questar benefited from some free publicity. In its roundup of the eclipse that appeared in its September 1973 issue, Sky and Telescope published a photograph by David Baysinger of Mark Peterson, a curator at the Gates Planetarium in Denver, Colorado. Peterson was shown in an exotic location demonstrating his Questar to a group of Kenyans at Lake Rudolf.^[29] The next month, the magazine published additional photographs including a pair that depicted the chromosphere and inner corona. Allen E. Shepherd had taken both with his Questar Seven on board the ship Canberra.^[30]

The company used its magazine advertising to do its own coverage of the June 1973 eclipse. In Sky and Telescope the following October, Questar highlighted two parties who photographed the event. At Akjoujt in Mauritania, Questar employee Paul Shenkle assisted cinematographer David Quaid in filming the eclipse. And at Lake Rudolf, David Baysinger and Mark Peterson captured their own images of the Moon passing in front of the Sun.^[31]

On December 13, 1974, another total solar eclipse occurred, this one off the southwest coast of Australia. In its coverage of the event, Sky and Telescope featured an image taken by R. Stevenson of Walnut Creek, California, of a row of camera equipment ready to photograph the eclipse onboard a Boeing 727 passenger jet. In the foreground was a Questar telescope.^[32]

Nature and Terrestrial Observing

In its 1968 booklet, the company wrote that Questar’s great power of magnification often astounded those who are used to typical spotting scopes. From a porch or garden table, the world around you is yours.^[33]

Continuing with a visual device that the company had used since the 1950s, Questar showcased pairs of images revealing wide-field perspective and high-magnification detail as evidence of the resolving power of the company’s telescopes. As a thoroughgoing New Yorker, Robert Little continued to make his contributions by showing what was possible with urban terrestrial observing with a Questar. In its 1968 booklet, the company reproduced three pairs of photographs Little made of the Empire State Building, a cargo ship, and a helicopter taking off from the roof of the Pan Am Building.^[34]

Other Questar owners made their contributions, too. Appearing in Natural History and Scientific American magazines, advertisements depicted close-up views of a yellow-shafted flicker in its nest in a dead palm tree,^[35] a blue heron if the field,^[36] Coleman Glacier at Mt. Baker in Washington State,^[37] the Confederate memorial at Stone Mountain near Atlanta,^[38] a bald eagle on a cold February day with a 15 mile-per-hour wind,^[39] a field of bighorn sheep,^[40] and a water turkey.^[41] More often than not, Dorothy and Ralph Davis were the photographers behind these images.

Covering the pages of Questar’s booklets and magazine advertisements of the late 1960s and early 1970s was a proliferation of high-magnification images depicting many types of wildlife. In addition to work by the Davises, the nature photography of Robert Little, Hubert Entrop, Michael Clark, and Dale Rex Coman appeared in Questar’s marketing literature and magazine advertisements. In the November 1973 issue of Natural History, the company asked, “Wouldn’t you enjoy observing wildlife so conveniently; seeing and photographing it, at whatever the distance, in amazing detail that only Questar can give you?”^[42]

Questar owners also documented action-filled scenes as they unfolded. In October 1965, Pope Paul VI became the first pontiff to visit the Western Hemisphere.^[43] The following April, Questar told the story of New York Herald Tribune photographer Bill Sauro, who used his Questar to capture an image of Pope Paul delivering an address at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.^[44] In June 1974, Questar featured pictures by James Keyworth showing dramatic scenes of firefighters battling a forest fire near a NORAD installation in Quebec.^[45] The company followed up with a four-page brochure entitled “Questar Photographs the Firefighters,” which contained more of Keyworth’s high-magnification photography.^[46] These examples belied dismissals about an instrument whose long focal length may not have made it an obvious candidate for such work.

Testimonials

Questar continued its use of owner testimonials, a practice it had followed since Lawrence Braymer’s good friend and advertising mentor Frank Godwin had encouraged him to do so. When she took over the company, Marguerite Braymer followed suit. She also benefited from the company’s strong network of friends who eagerly shared their experiences with their Questar telescopes.

As perhaps the company’s foremost testimonial writer, Rodger Gordon contributed numerous accounts of his evenings with his Questar telescope. Not long after he acquired one in April 1966,^[47] he wrote the first of what became many letters to the company. In its December 1966 advertisement in Sky and Telescope, Questar published a letter that Gordon wrote the prior July in which he heaped praise onto his new instrument. He reported splitting double stars separated by 0.4 seconds of arc or less, saw subtle detail in Jupiter’s cloud belts in spite of poor seeing, had an amazing experience detecting gaps in Saturn’s ring system that could not be more than 0.3 to 0.5 arcseconds wide, observed fine craterlets on the Moon, and even observed a variety of deep space objects including the Ring Nebula and globular clusters M13 and M5.^[48]

Other letters came in over the years, and Questar gladly featured them in its magazine advertising. In the August 1968 issue of Sky and Telescope, the company relayed Rodger Gordon’s observation of a diagonal streak across Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, an account that was confirmed by observatories with much larger instruments. “It may be that an important discovery has been made with Questar’s 3 1/2 inches of aperture!”^[49] Under the headline “Questar Keeps Talking about Resolution,” the company’s April 1971 advertisement in Sky and Telescope reproduced another of Gordon’s letters in which he raved about the resolving power of his Questar.^[50] Having acquired a Questar Seven before the end of 1972, Gordon offered his apprasial of its performance during a recent opposition of Mars.^[51] And in the Sky and Telescope for September 1974, Questar again shared another letter from Gordon, “our old ALPO friend” who described the success he had with seeing high-contrast detail on Jupiter’s disk with his 3.5-inch Questar.^[52]

Other Questar owners shared their thoughts, too. In its 1972 booklet, for instance, the company reproduced a letter from Robert Smith of Los Angeles. He claimed lengthy experience as an amateur photographer but almost no experience as an amateur astronomer. Fifteen years prior he had had a “traumatic and colorful experience” with a three-inch achromat, and he convinced himself that astronomy was perhaps not for him. Upon acquiring a Questar, however, he realized he was wrong. He expressed how impressed he was with its workmanship, superb image, portability, and convenience.^[53]

Many other individuals sent the company letters with their praise for their Questars.