I've just received my second-hand Swaro ST-80 and find it a great scope and will be happy using it at the waterfront. That said, I have to admit that, optically, it is absolutely no match to the setup that I sold. I had a Celestron C5 spotting scope with Televue Nagler 13 and 17mm eyepieces. The resolution, incredibly wide field of view (that is the most striking thing when first looking through the setup), and brightness of that setup was leagues ahead of the Swaro, and for the same price. And, of course, colour shadows are totally absent with mirror optics - no colour separation because no light passage through air-glass surfaces. Sure there is a corrector lens up front, but it bends the light so little that various portions of the spectrum just stay together. Well, the weight is enormous by Swaro standards (the eyepieces alone are about 2 pounds each) and it is not waterproof, but if one doesn't need to cart the scope about the countryside, and wants fabulous views for the fewest dollars (second-hand is definitely the way to go, in my opinion) then this is an option to be tested!