Q1: Is the Celestron C-100-R GT Refractor good for general viewing of land and sea objects as well, or is there a better model for all round use.

A: Unfortunately, the C100-R Refractor with GoTo has a German equatorial mount that is extremely awkward when used for viewing land objects. For dual-purpose viewing of sky and land/sea, you'll want a scope with a plain altazimuth mount or, preferably, a fork mount. The former is good for quick looks at the stars and easy viewing of land/sea objects. The latter is good for both extended astronomical use and land viewing. A reasonably good-quality scope with altazimuth mount is the Celestron FirstScope 90 AZ. It has reasonably good optics and a nice mount with slow-motion controls. Here's the URL; just paste it into your browser's address window: http://telescopes.com/products/celestron-firstscope-90-az-refractor-32996.html. A very nice fork-mounted scope is the Meade ETX-125PE. It offers very nice Maksutov-Cassegrain optics, a flawless GoTo system and a mount that can either be aligned with the Earth's axis for long-exposure astrophotography or used in altazimuth mode for land-sea viewing. It offers an aperture about an inch larger than the Refractor you asked about, and that will more than make up for the light loss experienced because of the Maksutov corrector. It's a nice scope and very popular. Here's the URL: http://telescopes.com/products/meade-etx-125pe-astro-telescope-premier-edition-uhtc-coatings-31940.html.