Celestron stars CPC Series, RIP nexstar

Well I guess the speculation was correct. Celestron now has a replacement for the Celestron Nexstar that gets them out of their Meade royalty payments. Looks like my Nexstar 9.25 GPS is a collectors item. The CPC isn't as attractive IMHO. I just recieved an email tonight.

Funny this is if you click on the link on the upper left hand side of the product page there is a shortcut jump to the different models on the screen. It says "Availible models". Below that it names the scopes Nexstar 11"(also 9.25 and 8) CPC. I guess they held onto the nexstar name. The link is below.

http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/cpc_index.php

Attached Image:

NexStar 11 CPC with XLT $2,799

Hmmm, three star alignment instead of auto-
north and level! That is different.
Maybe I should keep the NS8GPS that I have, they just might become collectors items. The Meade conspiracy special.
I like the auto align features of the original better I think.
The older model does like better to me too.

It would have been nice if they would have put in a usb connector instead of or along with the serial connector. You can't hardly buy a laptop today that has a serial connector. Sure you can buy an adapter, but that just means more wires. A mirror lock would have been nice too. I know the mirror doesn't shift much on the Celestrons, but I would still like to have it. Looks like the Fastar option is gone on the 8" now too. They don't mention it in the ad. I would also like to see a full picture of that redesigned tripod. I do like the new bracket for the hand controller.
Ralph

Is it certain that they are discontinuing the old models? I don't see that anywhere, but I just started reading. Is it possible they might just sell the old ones at a higher price to cover the royalties and the cheaper ones they don't have to pay on?

The gray on the new ones makes them look sort of cheesy to me, against the black, but that's just appearance. The tripod doesn't look as good and that's really not saying much for the 11".

It almost has me thinking about buying an "old model" while I can. I'm looking for a house now. If I buy before they become unavailable, assuming they do, and I do ok on the house I may jo just that.

Has anyone seen one of these yet? Doesn't seem like they're available yet, and I haven't seen that much in the way of hard data.

A used 11" GPS was one of the things on my list of potential purchases but it seems like they're going for around 2,200+ lately, which doesn't seem like that stellar of a deal if the CPC is 2600 new (or less, my local Celestron dealer occasionally discounts off the MSRP). Assuming that there isn't some issues with the CPC that makes it significantly less desirable than a GPS.