first attempt at star clusters

I just got my NexStar 8i and am new to astronomy. We've had lots of hmidity and hazy skies here but I had to try it out anyway. Last night, I tried to observe M5 and M13. I saw nothing but a very faint haze. While observing Jupiter, I was able to pick out at least 2 dark cloud bands and 4 moons easily. But that was really all that was visible except the rising full moon. I know that a full moon really hurts the seeing as do haze/humidity. (It was so hazy, I could barely make out the handle of the Big Dipper at 10:30 pm).

Will I be able to see much more detail of these objects with good conditions?

With good skies and no moon, M13 is going to roll your socks up and down. What you saw last night is not even close to what you will see with favorable conditions. Jupiter is OK with the moon up, but it is certainly much better with out it.

Don't forget to give your scope some time to thermally adjust to the outside temp. Sometimes takes an hour or so. If you don't then convection currents around the mirror as it cools (or heats) to outside temp will cause imagry to not be sharp. So try taking it out and viewing right away, then come back in an hour or 90 minutes and look at the same object, you'll see a big difference, especially at higher powers.

I had the older generation of that scope and it never failed to please. If it wasn't stolen during cross country shipping I would have never parted with it.

btw - what the other person said is true...M13 rocks through that scope under a dark sky!