Unitron advertisements in Sky and Telescope, and their outstanding catalogs were legendary. They are almost as memorable, and as sought after, as the telescopes themselves! Note the quote from the Amateur Telescope Making Advertisement article that can be found on the Links/Information page:
“Unitron advertisements in contrast were blatantly aspirational and subtly conformist, announcing Unitron as the largest selling brand, the highest quality brand, the most popular brand (“the ‘star’ of the star party”), the brand with the most accessories (including the UniHex rotating eyepiece selector), the brand everyone is giving for Christmas, and most importantly (because a Unitron was expensive) the brand that offered attractive terms of down payment and financing. Remarkably, a single Unitron ad could simultaneously speak to the science minded teenager’s expectations of his parents, the parent’s self perceived obligation to their upwardly mobile children, and the adult’s delayed gratification of his own childhood desires:
Johnny isn’t watching the late show tonight …
The shadows that shiver and shake on the TV screen are shivering and shaking in somebody else’s living room tonight. Johnny has discovered something new.
He’s traded the fleeting, flickering “thrills” of the 24 inch screen for the timeless excitement and majesty of the night sky. …
He has, in short, discovered astronomy.
Nothing better could happen than what happened to Johnny. And it happened simply because someone took the trouble to awaken, nourish and satisfy a lifetime of curiosity in Johnny by making him the gift of a fine telescope.
Someone, not so long ago, gave Johnny a Unitron.
Unitron ads frequently featured children and women as models; one ad even configured telescope components to make a zoo of fantastical animals. Astronomy had become as much a family as a solitary recreation, embraced by the rising class of affluent, educated and suburban professionals in management, science and technology, eager to impart a love of science to their children. This was also an era when even city dwellers enjoyed skies dark enough to make astronomy exciting, a backyard recreation ideally suited for a working father and his student son.”
According to John Coyle, it was Harry Keys, the General Manager hired by Larry Fine, who was responsible for this creative advertising and marketing in magazines such as Sky and Telescope and Popular Astronomy; and also trade shows. Telescope models were included at the trade shows primarily as “eye catchers” for Unitron’s primary product, industrial microscopes, which made up more than 90 percent of their business.
Attached are the beginnings of a collection of catalogs; price sheets are included on the next page:
– Early SeikoPolarex Catalog: SeikoPolarex
– 1956 Unitron Catalog: 1956 Catalog
– 1958 Unitron Catalog: Unitron_1958Catalog
– 1960 Seiko Scope Polarex Catalog: PolarexCatalog60s
– 1964 Nihon Seiko Catalog: SeikoScope Polarex-Unitron Catalog 1964
– 1970 Nihon Seiko Catalog: 1970_nihon_seiko
– 1970 Polarex Catalog: Polarex_1970
– 1970 Unitron Catalog: http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/Illustrations/unitron-catalog-1970.pdf
– 1972 Unitron Catalog: http://wiki.telescopeclassics.com/images/6/6e/Unitron_1972_Catalog.pdf
– 1978 Unitron Catalog (German): 78D_unitron
– 1980 Unitron Catalog: 1980 Unitron Catalog wSpotting Scopes
– 1984 Unitron Catalog: Star Splitting Refractors
– 1987 Unitron-Eschenbach Catalog: Unitron_Eschenbach
– 1987 Polarex/Unitron-Italian Catalog: PolarexUnitron-Italian1987
– 1987 Polarex-Unitron Catalog: unitron197-Japanese
– Post 1992 Unitron 2.4″ Equatorial Product Bulletin: 
– Accessories and Components: Telescope accessories and components
– AstroPhotography Accessories: AstroPhoto Access
– Duetron: Duetron
– Eyepieces: Eyepieces
– Model 105: 105
– Model 105-78: Unitron_105_1178
– Model 114: 114
– Model 128: 128
– Model 131-C: 131C
– Model 132-C: Unitron_132C_0478
– Model 140: 140
– Model 142: 142
– Model 150: 150
– Model 152: 152
– Model 166: Unitron_166_1078
– Models 425N/426N:
– Unihex: Unihex
– Model 500: 
– Model 600:
– 60mm Spotting Scopes: 60mm Spotting scope
– 80mm Spotting Scopes:
– Pro Binos: Pro binoculars
– Astronomical Binos: Astonomical Observation Binoculars
– 3″ Rich Field Refractor: E-758 A-755
– 1992 Kasai Trading Company Catalog: Kasai Mail order catalog Vol 4 – 1992
– 1993 Kasai Trading Company Catalog:
- 1960’s Unitron Student Microscope Catalog:
