Peter Natscher
First Great Viewing through my 14.5 f/6 Newtonian

Hi everyone!

I rolled out the big 14.5" f/6 Parallax Newtonian onto my driveway after I noticed that Mars was high in the sky around 9 p.m. Tonight, the air up here in Belmont Heights (elev. 800 ft.) was moist, mild and steady, with Sirius barely twinkling. The Moon was near the Zenith. At about 9:30 p.m., I turned on the fan to the mirror cell to rid the OTA of tube currents while I attempted to view the terminator of a beautiful waxing gibbous Moon. This is the first time I have looked at the Moon with my new 14.5" Parallax. With the 9mm Nagler (245x) the air gave the Moon a slight ripple, but the view was exquisite. I could see craterlets on Plato's floor. The baffling on my 14.5" Newtonian really helps with creating good contrast. Keeping the mirror fan on while observing give me steadier views as opposed to turning it off. I could look at the crisp image of the Moon for hours. There's something to be said for standing two rungs up on a step ladder in front of your house at 9:30 p.m. looking through the big 2" eyepiece 85" up. Passer-bys wonder what your doing.

Next was Mars. Mars was about 50° up and in a moderately dark area of the sky. I started viewing Mars with the 9mm Nagler and no filters. This was the first time I have seen good detail through a moderate sized scope. The longer I looked the more I saw. At 245x, Mars was as large to me as the Moon is with naked eyes. On Mars' sphere, I saw many dark patches under the milky ochre haze of Mars' atmosphere. The air gave me steady views a good 50% of the time. I proceded to screw onto the 9mm Nagler a Dark Red #25 color filter and slid the eyepiece back into the A-P 2" focuser. The patches that were previously hazy now appeared as darker detail. 50% of the time, I could see fine edge detail on the patches that were well under 1 sec of arc. The small white polar cap was clearly surrounded by a darker area. Syrtis Major ran from the pole well past the equator. Utopia showed fine irregular edging along Cebrenia. And I could make out Cebrenia and Hellas. Using a Medium Blue #80A color filter also allowed me to see Mars in a different light. At 10:30 p.m. the dew point was being reached and fog quickly came in from the Crystal Springs area to my west. My short 2 hours of observing with this powerful telescope was wonderful. If, only it wasn't a back breaking 250lbs to drag the thing out of my garage.

I wish I could get this monster to Fremont Peak.