60 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2019From the start, this company’s
goal was the perfect telescope.
text and photos by Tony Hallas
The story behind
Stellarvue
ll stories have a beginning. In
the case of Vic Maris, the story
starts with a kid who was sim-
ply fascinated with the stars.
A neighbor noticed the boy’s
passion and gave him a copy of The Golden
Book of Astronomy, by Rose Wyler and
Gerald Ames. Young Vic pursued his inter-
est and, much later in life, went on to found
Stellarvue.
During his childhood, Maris asked his
parents for a telescope, and they innocently
bought him one of those terrible “depart-
ment store” scopes that proved nearly
impossible to use. A friend who was
equally interested in astronomy suggested
to Maris that if he wanted a better scope,
he’d have to build it himself.
Thus was born the guiding principle
that stuck with Maris all his life: If you
want something built right, you have to
build it yourself.Building scopes
The first telescope Maris made was a
6-inch f/7.8 Newtonian ref lector that
came as a kit from Edmund Scientific. He
learned how to grind the mirror and, with
a little help, to parabolize it. This scope
served him well over the next few years,
but he didn’t like the tube currents, whichA
Every telescope Stellarvue
has ever produced has been
a refractor.