SUNSET: 
8The manufacturer of the highly coveted Questar telescope has closed its shutters after 76 years of serving the astronomy community.
The Questar Corporation of New Hope, Pennsylvania, was the manufacturer of the highly sought-after 3.5-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain, known simply as The Questar. The telescope, later referred to as the Standard Model, was considered by many to be the Rolls Royce of precision, compact telescopes. Now, that company has closed its doors, sending its employees home for the final time on May 4th.
Lawrence Braymer founded Questar in 1950, after reading an article in the Journal of the Optical Society of America by Russian optician and astronomer Dimitri D. Maksutov about his new lens design. Braymer saw this new design as the basis for a compact, rugged, yet easy-to-use telescope. Released in 1954, the Questar 3.5 was crafted with care and marketed as a premium instrument for the discerning enthusiast, eventually becoming a collector's item sought after by amateurs and even celebrities. Famous names such as Wernher Von Braun, Arthur C. Clarke, and Johnny Carson were proud owners of Questar telescopes. Charles Bronson is seen using one in the 1972 movie The Mechanic. Even Al Nagler, founder of Tele Vue Optics, owned a 3.5-inch Questar.
Over the years, Questar made small improvements on the 3.5-inch Standard Model and offered other variants of the design, including a field model (without a mount), the Duplex (permitting the OTA to be removed from the equatorial base), and larger instruments, including 7-inch and 12-inch models. But it was the Standard Model that achieved cult status — today it often commands a higher price on the used market than it did at the time of purchase.
Questar effectively stopped manufacturing new telescopes early in 2024, when their primary optics supplier, Cumberland Optical shut down. Since then, they've primarily focused on servicing instruments. Now, the company, including its website, has shut down completely.
About Sean Walker
S&T Senior Editor Sean Walker joined the staff of Sky Publishing in 2000 and specializes in astrophotography, solar system observing, and astronomy gear.
Comments
John Ray
May 6, 2026 at 4:25 pm
It feels as if Rolls Royce itself has shut down.
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[email protected]
May 8, 2026 at 7:30 pm
Other than the production of jet engines, I really wouldn't care if Rolls-Royce had shut down. Questar, on the other hand, I will miss. I've got a field model, a Standard, and a weird 8-lb stainless steel OTA that Questar built for the Strategic Defense Initiative, and all would benefit from servicing. And that's just me, with what I've already got. With the loss of RTMC, OPT, TMB, and going back as far as C&H Surplus and Optica B/C, I'm feeling a profound sense of loss. Hopefully all of the upcoming NASA manned missions will regenerate interest in everything in the universe hat isn't bound to the surface of Earth
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G Money
May 6, 2026 at 6:04 pm
i've lusted after this beautiful instrument since I was a kid. I even sent the company a letter asking them to donate one, free of charge, to my non-existent youth astronomy club! they sent me a very polite letter in response but refused my request. ah, youth! so i had to console myself with the purchase of one of those $29.99 3 1/2" reflectors on the back of the comic books, you know with the cardboard tube and the split wood tripod. was it from edmund scientific? but I loved it and it ignited a life-long love of telescopes and astronomy that persists to this day. go voyagers!
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Jim-Gasser
May 6, 2026 at 8:48 pm
I never had one, but I wanted one. In the early 70s when I started astronomy a Toledo OH astronomy club member had one- it was beautiful. I looked at the ads every month. I would have had cut LOTS of lawns to make the money. 😉
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خالد
May 7, 2026 at 5:09 am
It is sad to see such a long-standing company exit the market.
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Ala'a-Jawad
May 7, 2026 at 6:50 am
My father gifted me a Questar when I was in high school, and even though I’ve had other (much larger) telescopes over the years, the questar remains my favourite - an “enchanting companion” as stated by the company’s ads back in the day. During the 1991 Desert Storm war the telescope was used to monitor Iraqi anti-aircraft activities from our house. Now that I’m too old to haul large instruments for observation sessions, the Questar is the only instrument I choose to take to the field.
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Machefsky
May 7, 2026 at 11:48 am
I got a Seestar S50 instead.
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Papa Janesick
May 10, 2026 at 9:29 pm
A 3.5 inch Questar took the first astronomical solid state CCD images in 1974.
See http://www.digicamhistory.com/1970s.html
Also two past Sky and Telescope articles introducing the CCD astronomical community were published September 1987 and March 1990.
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