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Honestly both of those things are what I spend my time doing. The stars that are visible here often resolve to double so on some level it's like a newb-filter for interesting things to look at I'm seriously not complaining about my skies. I'm grateful for having found the hobby to begin with under them and am shocked at how well the Orion Skyscanner 100mm does at getting them. With everyones dusty scopes you see, you'd think there was nothing to see at all. As I keep saying the biggest surprise was how observable the 5 planets are. My sister-in-law is Bortle 2, my friend's vacation house is Bortle 3, my mother-in-law is Bortle 3, I'm going to have a lot of privileged access in my life to the sky so I try and keep it in perspective.

So, grass is always greener my friend. I'm in the shadow of the lights of NYC at a solid Bortle 9. I'm lucky enough to have a double lot but pollution from neighbors is that 10x literally. I gotta battle my own families bathroom light and kitchen lights even! All that means is I've been limited to planets and lunar for the time being and traveling to dark sites is going to be my future. There's nothing wrong with dwelling on these things as a newb though, they're kind of absolutely mind blowing and one could spend a lot of time just looking at them for years.

So jealous of Bortle 6...

Fellow newb here. I just went from my 100mm refractor to an older 8" Celestron SCT and I found the mechanical part of it to be cumbersome. There's a lot of satisfaction to be had for slewing to something with your hand and getting it in your frame, easily. I echo the advice here to go Dob mount unless you know for certain you're going to turn into an AP-pro and can't wait. The difference between a perfectly tracked view on an EQ mount vs. it pulling out of frame and adjusting with a dob is real but I personally find the latter better when I'm being laid back and looking into a scope as opposed to just leaving the scope standing and taking pictures while I drink coffee and chat with someone next time. With your scope and people can correct me if I'm wrong but the proper EQ mount for the weight would be like $1700 in the form of an EQ6.

I'm honestly thinking about buying a dovetail mount for it from a 3rd party and just selling the OTA, I bet I can get $800 for it in this market based on what I've been seeing. Use the funds to just buy an 8-12" Dob. This was supposed to be a way to get me into SCTs cheaply while still being a complete and total newb visual only guy. Now I feel like I'm being pigeon-holed to buy something like an EQ-6 or AVX way earlier than I wanted before I can even discern why I'd even want an equatorial mount much less have a camera that I'd use for AP. Anyone want to trade a Celestron 8" OTA that's in perfect shape for their dob?! I see broken versions of my mount for sale for a few hundred, I bet I can part this out for more money than I bought it for by a long shot. Gotta make lemonade sometimes.

Texicans are the best. Nothing else to add but welcome from a newbier newb.

I'm learning the original Nexstar 5/8 only works with the original controller it came with. Celestron doesn't manufacture any replacements and literally no other controller is compatible. I don't think I have an 8i and just a regular 8, I think someone made the mistake here in ID'ing it but it's understandable cause it looks exactly the same.

I feel lied to on some level. They call their stuff modular, put RJ11 jacks on everything and call them serial ports but nothing works with anything else. Totally lied to.

Exactly this, I probably have about 2 dozen visible stars. I was really shocked at how well the planets resolved in fact, I would have thought there would be way more atmospheric heat (there's some). I knew it'd be bad, I didn't know Jupiter and Saturn would be almost like being at a dark site good though. Two nights ago I looked at Orion in my 100mm and it was the faintest of smudges. Was kind of excited at the smudge though!

This is insane, why would Celestron do this? You're saddling your legacy owners with over $1,000, essentially the cost of a new SCT because of a handheld controller you very clearly greedily didn't make backwards compatible and refuse to manufacture replacement parts. Here I am trying to get into the hobby and Celestron just did the thing that's causing me to stop in my tracks. So much for Celestron OTAs lasting forever because the thing around it, doesn't. Oh and a really not standard mounting situation in a field of not the best standards in mounting Literally depressed over this.

Again though, if that wasn't a secure connection, would the remote work at all? As for an alt-azimuth over an AVX, in my head my progression is 100% visual astronomy to 20% visual 80% AP over the course of 2-4 years. Looks like a new NexStar SE is $500 + whatever the mount changeover is going to cost me, that's half of what the entry level mount I know I'm going to want to have (AVX) when the time comes. Sigh... can't believe this happened after 1 night with the thing. I thought not opting for the latest and greatest would solve problems, not create them. Would have been better off just getting an AD8 or something similar at this stage of my journey and reaching for an SCT setup when I was more experienced.

The one end was an RJ-11 serial cable that I messed with, nothing. The other end if memory serves when I was in there re-seating and cleaning the ribbon cable was soldered to the board. I'd have to imagine if there was a serial connection not being made the controller itself wouldn't work and not just the display but I'm not exactly super knowledgeable about this.

I should add that this is the manual I have for it and I'm only assuming it's an 8i from what someone else said, it could be an original Nexstar 8. Also, there are sky charts in there from December of 2000 and the manual is dated 1999 so...

So I went ahead and picked up this older Nexstar 8i and the upgrade over my 4" Dob is obviously out of this world (sorry!) the only problem is on night #2, the hand controller display just shut off. The scope motors and such still respond and the red LED works just fine but the display itself, nada. What are my options? I only paid $500 and when he sold it to me it worked so I kind of feel like that guy is off the hook. Even if I thought he was being shady (which I don't, didn't seem like the type) wouldn't I just want to pick up like an AVX and call the OTA a steal at $500? How hard is it to change out the mount? I'd need a dovetail rail or something, right? Should I just find a replacement controller and call it a day for now (I always figured mount upgrade would come a year or two from now)? Will one of the newer ones work that have the USB or do I need to find a "vintage" controller? There's what appears to be a decent telescope shop about an hour from me I was going to take a trip and ask but I figured you guys are so awesome and helpful here you might know the answer or have good reccos. Things I already tried: Powering from fully charged AAs Powering from AC adapter Powering from Celestron power bank Opening up controller, cleaning ribbon cable as suggested on a helpful thread on the subject on another forum from other people who have had this issue Seriously thanks guys, you're an amazing resource from a long time lurker and now apparent newb with a lot of questions.

lol I don't know about "want" but when you live again in the lights of NYC, you kind of limit yourself to bright things. You can see a lot with a 4" Dob here considering the conditions and price point but I've been eyeballing M45 since a very young child, such an odd cluster that you can make out... resolves to just stars. I want more than just what I've been limited to, ultimately. Things like Jupiter and Saturn are things I cling to because they're among the only things I can resolve. Not that I'm knocking observing planets, it's just not something I want to come on and say I'm all about as that focus was really just about limitations so far. My in-laws are from parts like rural PA and WY and such so visiting them just got 1,000x more interesting. "Who wants to visit Gram?!" Honestly the jerky/shaky/response thing is annoying but it's definitely workable. I'll spend today getting it all up to speed and hope the clouds clear (ugh like every dang day in the forecast) and I'm sure once I'm able to actually align and use it as intended I'll accept the trade-off of satisfaction of moving the tube with my hand.

I think at this stage of my hobbying I'm very similar in what I enjoy. The problem is I live in the lights at the outskirts of NYC so I plan to travel for darkness and my cars are small (+family/dog!). Trying to get around a 12" Dob to a dark sight I felt like would be incredibly prohibitive. Maybe if you engineer a rocket cone for one side and mount it to the roof of the car and have the mount itself transform into a dog crate? The C8 just seemed like the absolute best next step for me and probably is and I need to stop being a baby about the mount. Googling around it seems like most people are like, "Why would you want to not have a GoTo mount on a C8?" So I should probably at least spend enough time with it to understand why they're saying that. I got home with the scope and had like 30 minutes of daylight before my first light with it so I really need time with for everything from dialing in the finder to collumation to cleaning it. I was expecting it to not be ready but I wasn't expecting the mount to be such an encumbrance to "pointing and going" Friggin planets looked incredible even under my skies over the 100mm though! WOO!

I have a 4" Dob that I got started in the hobby (Orion Skyscanner 100) very casually. Years of like, "hey I know that's Jupiter, let me point this at it!" I've added on a 4.5mm eyepiece and a 2X Barlow over time, I never even got the red dot finder fixed because it's so easy to just move the scope around and find the target you're going for. I'm that much of a newb. I kind of almost wear it as a badge of honor even though it's ignorant. Fast forward to today and I picked up a slightly older, used Celestron C8 with a GoTo mount. Last night was my first time with it and what fuss! I can't get into the neighborhood of say something easy like Jupiter and just spiral around until I find it, the adjustments always come with shakiness and jerkiness even when you try and dial in the softer movements. Finding Jupiter and Saturn easily takes me 5x longer when "fishing" and not using the scope or "GoTo feature." Am I always going to have to align and use the motoroized mount to find things? Is this something I just need to get used to doing? I'm half tempted to sell the mount setup and get something manual and actually train myself to find things in the finder scope. At this point in my hobby I'm way more interested in visual than I am AP. Am I just wasting time money and frustrating trying to get these auto things to work? Or just settle down and get used to the motorized stuff and it'll work out over time when I'm used to it? Thanks all!

Thanks for confirming guys, this just seemed so obvious to me and I'm so ignorant that I had to check. I'm so excited.

I don't have to tell anyone how hard it is to find stuff at good prices. I got this for $500 and am taking a road trip and picking it up today. I feel like I got a super super steal because the tube is the tube and I can build on it over time. I'm a pretty darn ignorant newb coming from a 100mm Dob though and could use confirmation So how did I really do? Was this a good pickup? No reason to reconsider before I pick it up, right?

I've always gotten off on understanding orbital mechanics, knowing where everything is in the night sky and never looking through a telescope. Really, the last time I looked through one was 15 years ago. It may sound silly but keeping it simple has made it so I enjoy the sky, more. I get a kick out of noticing say Saturn and Jupiter aligning and then it popping up in the news as we got closer, without anticipating it for 2 years only to have it be cloudy on the night of closest alignment. I do complicated stuff for a living and just having this subject here that's infinitely complex, that I'm interested in that I learn about on my terms, it's been a liberating life experience. Well I'm ready to grow up and of course I pick a time where everything is like right by the sun :D So where do I start? Clearly the moon, Mars and Venus are all awesome first targets but I can't see any tonight! I'm on Long Island so I have the uber light pollution of NYC so I'm sure that's a huge factor. Here's my entry level telescope https://www.telescope.com/Orion-SkyScanner-100mm-TableTop-Reflector-Telescope/p/102007.uts Thanks everyone!