Love the tripod Nateman! Looks quite beefy, I'm sure it's well built. 

Also I see the difference between a newt and a cassegrain.  No star flares.

A M A Z I N G pics nateman! I enjoy ALL of them, OMG I want a nice telescope. What is shown in the telescope shot to the right? 15 or so dots in a line. If you're wondering which pic I am asking about, it's the one with your telescope in pic. the dots are right and above the tree line. Hope you are doing well! We haven't had a Nateman sighting in far too long. 

Awesome pics Nate and GTX

notfordman
A M A Z I N G pics nateman! I enjoy ALL of them, OMG I want a nice telescope. What is shown in the telescope shot to the right? 15 or so dots in a line. If you're wondering which pic I am asking about, it's the one with your telescope in pic. the dots are right and above the tree line. Hope you are doing well! We haven't had a Nateman sighting in far too long. 

 
Click on that actual picture... its an entire night time lapse of my scope doing its thing.  Its my first time lapse.  You can see the Pleiades, and eventually Orion coming up. 
 
Yea, I havent been here much.  2 reasons.  first and foremost my job labeled the EVGA website "games" and summarily blocked it.  Second, too much spam was such a turn off.  This reach 100 posts for whatever just couldnt take it.  It was like forum graffiti to my once beautiful home.  
 

nateman_doo
 

GTXJackBauer
Wow, those are amazing.
 
Novice here as I just recently bought my first telescope.  Still learning and didn't realize how ridiculously expensive this new hobby can be. 
 

 
Thanks.   You are looking at close to 2 years of experience and thousands dropped into the hobby.  It only gets worst my friend.  I could have bought a used car with what I have paid for my gear over the years.  Took me about 2 years to finally start getting the hang of it.
Now buy this if you have a DSLR: 
https://www.amazon.com/SVBONY-Photography-Dedicated-Extended-Telescope/dp/B0114BB908/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=DSLR+camera+adapter+telescope&qid=1572714349&sr=8-4
Mate that with a Canon DSLR and you can actually just get your feet wet.  Its all downhill after that.  Its how I got into astrophotography to begin with.  No one wanted to come outside in the cold and see what I was seeing in the scope so it starts with the cell phone to the eye piece, then that gets old and you want to take better phone background pictures.  It snowballs into thousands.

Yeah.  I went on a research binge.  I fell in love with it even though in the past, I'd thought someday I'd pull the trigger on a scope.  I was waiting for Black Friday Week/Cyber Monday for the deals but couldn't pass up the 24 hr sale on the NextStar 8 SE over at B&H as I was originally eyeing the 6 SE to afford + w/e discount it would come with it IF it came to be.  Than I had my 'accessory' list.  I still can't wrap my head around on the cost of some of these eye pieces, adapters, etc but I kinda understand because it's such a super duper niche market, it will cost a ton. lol  So with this sale, I was able to get the 8 SE and a bunch of accessories at it's original cost instead of selling a full kidney.

I already got the T-Mount Adapter and Camera Adapter since I'm eyeing on AND dependent on budget, after I upgrade the PC mind you lol, either a Panasonic G85, G95 or a GH5.  It might take a while but those are my favored options.  There's a possibility that I might jump on a camera sooner than later and hold off the CPU/MB upgrades IF the deals on Black Friday/Cyber Monday are just too good.
 
The Celestron Focus Motor was my costliest accessory and reading reviews, I just had to have it for photography and possibly video use.  Unfortunately I've had issues with it as it intermittently stops working and have talked to Celestron and told me I should reinstall it which I will do when the need arises for 'clear skies'. heh
 
I also grabbed a iPad 32 GB (2018) in like new condition and traded that with a family member's iPad 128 GB (2018) who had the same iPad but bigger storage (They wouldn't even fill a 32 GB).  I than took an old 1st gen iPad Mini (2012) that couldn't hold a charge, kind family member gave it to me as well to have at it so I replaced the dying battery on it (Pain in the wazoo on that repair.) and it works like a charm now.  So I got two iPads, one will be for Skyportal and the 2nd one will be a big viewfinder for the camera via WIFI/Bluetooth.  
 
I'm sure in comparison, this is nothing what you have at your disposal and really amazed to see what others have.  Have seen already $20K+ systems if not double.  It's mind blowing really. 

Hope I didn't bore you too much and can't wait to see more shots.

Just a heads up, I was able to grab Skysafari 6 Pro at 50% off currently at the app store.  The Plus version is also on sale.

I read that it was better than the free version of Celestron Skyportal.  It will work with my 8 SE, Wifi, etc.  Hoping they add support for the Focuser but read they don't have any plans in doing such.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to witness the Mercury transit of 2019 across the sun today since well, cloudy skies! lol  I guess I'll have to wait till May 2049 for the next one. heh

This place is where I got my telescope, was the best price by far.
 
Here is the list for the rest of the year 
 
https://www.highpointscie...dar&rjnrid=5WAzAYP

Celestron nexstar 130 SLT
https://www.highpointscie...erized-telescope-31145

For those who missed the transit:
https://i.imgur.com/4cudkFg.gifv
 
 
Brad... want some company on that farm?!?  ugh, I'd kill to be at a legit dark sight.  NJ stinks for light pollution. 

Awesome Brad😎👍 let me know what start in the galaxy you find in coordinates 4.12.77. Or 77.12.4.

With filter technology now a days, the light pollution isn't always an issue. It's good to have dark skies though. I stream my scope once or twice a week on Twitch for fun. We all know the self-promotion rules here, so I'll just leave that my username on twitch is SimVU and people can search for it on their own.