Questar Corporation

For other uses, see Questar (disambiguation).
Questar Corporation
Private
Industry Manufacturing
Founded 1950
Headquarters New Hope, Pennsylvania, USA
Key people
 Donald J. Bandurick, President and CEO
Products Optical / mechanical devices
Website www.questarcorporation.com

Questar Corporation is a company based in New Hope, Pennsylvania, which manufactures precision optical devices for consumer, industrial, aerospace, and military markets.

Questars have been associated with many well-known scientists and other personalities; for example, in 1959, Wernher Von Braun purchased a telescope manufactured by the company.[1]

The Questar 3-1/2” Maksutov Cassegrain

Questar 3 ½”

In development since 1946, the Questar 3-1/2” has been the company's most notable product. Braymer’s basic concept for the telescope was one of portability, compactness, and ease of use. He used a "Catadioptric" Maksutov design, named after its inventor Dmitry Maksutov, for the optical tube assembly. Braymer used a modified Cassegrain design that added an aluminized spot to the Maksutov corrector plate, creating a compact folded light path (this design is sometimes called a "Spot- Maksutov). To avoid a conflict with a design patent held by John Gregory licensed to Perkin-Elmer, Braymer put the secondary spot on the outer (R1) surface of the corrector lens. In the mid-1960s the patent issue was settled, and Questar’s Maksutov-Cassegrains after that time use the Gregory design with the aluminized spot on the inside of the corrector (R2).[2] The design was originally envisioned as a 5-inch (130 mm) telescope, but it was decided a telescope of that size would not fit the market they were aiming for, since it would be too heavy and expensive.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Kennedy Space Center's Amateur Astronomers' "A TELESCOPE FROM HISTORY OWNED BY DR. WERNHER von BRAUN"
  2. ↑ TelescopeOptics.net, 10.2.3.3. Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope "Questar Maksutov-Cassegrain, a design very similar to Gregory's (in order to avoid patent infringement, Questars had - for about a decade - the aluminized spot placed at the front meniscus surface)"
  3. ↑ Paul Yates, THE QUESTAR, COSMOS - HEBDEN BRIDGE ASTRONOMY SOCIETY, page 7, September 2000

Further reading

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