Maybe the Space-Baby’s Name is Questar?

The best thing about this letter—in which Stanley Kubrick cautiously asks Arthur C. Clarke if maybe he’d like to collaborate on “the proverbial ‘really good’ science fiction movie”—is that in the end he brings the letter back around to their shared fondness for Questar telescopes:

Incidentally, “Sky & Telescope” advertise a number of scopes. If one has the room for a medium size scope on a pedestal, say the size of a camera tripod, is there any particular model in a class by itself, as the Questar is for small portable scopes?

The letter loses points, however, for not including a P.S. about space-babies.

Stubby the Rocket is the mascot of Tor.com. Stubby is still miffed about missing that audition for 2001: A Space Odyssey.