I recall that the Quantum 8 was manufactured by Optical Techniques Co. in the US. The "Telescope Bluebook" states :
"Optical Techniques Inc.
This company was started in 1977 by former executives of the Questar Corporation. Their sole purpose was to manufacture a Questar quality instrument without the accompanying Questar price. Their sole product, like Questar, was high quality Maksutov telescopes. The company did well for a few years, but was not able to sustain their product, and ceased production in 1982.
The Quantum series was introduced in 1978 and lasted until 1982. These telescopes were of very high optical and mechanical quality and are much sought after today. The Quantum 4 was a 4" f/15 optical system with a built-in flip mirror a-la Questar. This would allow the image to proceed through the telescope back to a camera or other accessories or divert the image through a 1 ¼" eyepiece holder. When diverted through the eyepiece holder, another knob could insert a barlow lens. The optical tube, with its 6x30 RA finder was placed on a single arm fork type mount with an electric clock drive and table top legs. Quantum 6 was the 6" f/15 version of the above telescope, but with 2" eyepieces a larger support arm and a 8x50 RA finder. The largest model of the line was the Quantum 8. This was an 8" f/15 optical tube with the 2" eyepiece back like the Quantum 6. It was made as an optical tube only. There very few of the 8" models made, and as a result they are very expensive."
Optical Techniques produced a catalogue in 1978 for their range however the Quantum 8 came later, see here
http://geogdata.csun.edu/~voltaire/c...um/quantum.pdf
You would be hard pressed to go past the Russian Intes series of Maksutovs, maybe not the best finished scopes around but quality where it counts.
Jacob Apfelbaum (IIS member) was selling a Quantum 8 here on IIS some years ago, I don't know if he ever sold it, here is the link
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...t=quantum+sale