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.

The cast-aluminum double-fork arm mount was designed with a built-in clock drive and became equatorial by adding the collapsible legs included.

It also included a star chart engraved in white on a blue aluminum sleeve (this doubles as a dewcap), around the barrel which contained a moon map.

To avoid a conflict with a design patent held by John Gregory licensed to PerkinElmer, 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).

[4] The Questar 3.5” entered commercial production in 1954 with ads for the model run in many astronomy, science, photography, and nature related magazines such as National Geographic, Scientific American and Sky & Telescope.

The ads focused on the telescope's mechanical and optical design, educational value for children, ease of use, and adaptations as a spotting scope and telephoto lens.