Questar 50th anniversary 3.5" Telescope with Broadband, quartz mirror and Powerguide

The "Questar 50" is a blend of the original Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope design, as first manufactured in 1950, with refinements in twenty-first century materials and technology that were undreamed-of 50 years ago. The Questar 50th Anniversary Edition will be manufactured and assembled in very limited quantities. Maintaining the extraordinarily high visual and mechanical standards for which Questar has always been justly famous, these telescopes will be hand-crafted and will have documentation reflecting the manufacture and optical performance of each individual telescope. A limited edition 50th Anniversary Model Questar will be a treasure for decades to come. The Questar Standard 3.5 (on which the 50th Anniversary Edition is based) has long been regarded as the finest personal telescope in the world. In addition to its legendary resolution, flatness of field, contrast, and 1/8th wave accuracy optics, the Standard Questar has a suite of standard integrated features that are simply unavailable as a package on any other telescope, some features that are costly options on other telescopes - and some features that are unavailable on other scopes, period! You can uniquely select between three magnifications from a single ultra-premium eyepiece. One is a low power, wide field internal finderscope. The finder converts to a low to medium power telescope for terrestrial and astronomical observing at a finger's touch on a lever conveniently located below the eyepiece. A second convenient lever provides a still higher power from the same eyepiece by inserting a unique built-in premium Barlow into the light path. Removing the first eyepiece from the focusable eyepiece diopter tube and replacing it with the supplied second ultra-premium eyepiece gives three additional magnifications - a total of six magnifications from only two eyepieces! Also included are a screw-in off-axis glass solar filter and a unique built-in solar filter for the finderscope that pops into place at the touch of finger. The telescope barrel rotates from side to side in its fork arms for the most comfortable observing position (a feature unavailable on other scopes) and is silk-screened with a functional Moon Map. The telescope's unique slide-on removable dewcap is itself a usable all-season Star Chart. We regret having to use the word "unique" so often, but there is so much to a Questar that no other scopes have. The equatorial fork mount is machined of brushed aluminum, aircraft polyurethane painted, with friction drive, no clutch lever, manual altitude and azimuth controls. It includes a synchronous clock drive motor and a declination clamp. The RA setting circle is universal for use in both Northern and Southern hemispheres. A set of tabletop tripod legs quickly sets the scope up for polar operation hands-free tracking of near and deep space objects alike. The Standard Questar stores in a velvet-lined leather-like lockable hard carrying case that has pockets for the included tabletop legs, the supplied second eyepiece, and the standard solar filter. The base unit of the 50th Anniversary Questar will be the Questar Standard Model as described above. However, features that are unique to the 50th Anniversary Questar will include: optics with 1/10-wave accuracy at the Cassegrain focus, a zero-expansion Quartz mirror with enhanced silver coatings, and a magnesium fluoride coated BK7 meniscus corrector lens; a Moon Map, dewcap Star Chart, and RA circle that are silk-screened and etched as on the original Questar; silk-screened and etched 50th anniversary logos on the optical tube Moon Map; a full aperture solar filter in place of the standard off-axis version; a DC battery powered Questar Powerguide II drive/RA drive corrector for cordless scope operation anywhere in the world; a genuine leather case; two Brandon eyepieces; a limited edition serial number; and certified performance optics, with individual optical test result documents attested to and signed by the testing personnel. Production of the Questar 50th Anniversary Model will be limited to 250 units worldwide. Supplied Accessories: 1.25" 16mm and 24mm eyepieces (54x to 120x, depending on eyepiece and whether built-in 1.5x Barlow is used); built-in 4x finder (6x when 16mm eyepiece is used); VHR silver coated and overcoated quartz mirror; magnesium fluoride coated optics; built-in star diagonal; dual arm fork mount; setting circles (r. a. circle power driven); Powerguide II DC motor drive; manual slow motion controls; thread-in dust cap; 3.5" full aperture solar filter; solar filter for finder; tabletop tripod legs; locking leather hard case; self-storing dewcap with embossed star chart; embossed Moon chart on scope barrel; ten-year warranty (five years on coatings, two years on drive and focuser).