Review of Nikon 18X70 Astroluxe (1 Viewer)

[dries1]

New review by Roger Vine.

Nikon 18x70 Astroluxe Review

www.scopeviews.co.uk

 

[tenex]

Very strange. Normally he wants a flat(tish) field for astronomy, but he raves about these despite pronounced field curvature. And he sold off his 15x56 SLCs for these! How much better could they be? Oddly he doesn't do any sort of comparison.

 

[dries1]

I have both and the SLC is the grab and go glass for the night sky, I use it hand held in a reclining chair. An excellent glass with the requirement for higher mag during the day. The 18X70 has a very nice APOV and with the 18X provides really nice views at night (mounted), one can use it hand held, but the weight/girth after a while is uncomfortable, additionally I would never use in the day as it is IF. I would be the other way around, the SLC stays, the Nikon is a pure astro glass IMO, personally I have no other use for it.

 

[galazie1]

Yes my 18x70 is also only used for astronomy. But once it comes to astronomy nothing is better than them in the 70-80mm class

 

[Blue72]

Very strange. Normally he wants a flat(tish) field for astronomy, but he raves about these despite pronounced field curvature. And he sold off his 15x56 SLCs for these! How much better could they be? Oddly he doesn't do any sort of comparison.

For astronomy the 15x56 can’t keep up…DSO are dull in comparison and you can’t see Saturns ring separate from the ball

 

[quincy88]

Man, I've always wanted to look through a pair of those. They are really nice looking, despite their cartoonish large size. Or maybe because of it? I don't know. Very cool binos.

 

[tenex]

For astronomy the 15x56 can’t keep up…DSO are dull in comparison and you can’t see Saturns ring separate from the ball

Nor can you see that at 18x... and it's IF. So the 18x70 must just be that much better for DSOs, and astronomy the real priority for Roger.

 

[MiddleRiver]

Yikes! Those are cooool!!!

 

[Blue72]

Nor can you see that at 18x... and it's IF. So the 18x70 must just be that much better for DSOs, and astronomy the real priority for Roger.

Yes you can , especially in the Nikon

plenty of astrolux owners on “cloudy nights” can confirm this

 

[tenex]

Yes you can , especially in the Nikon

We are clearly using language differently. What I mean by seeing Saturn's rings distinctly does not occur at 18x, but (in my 82mm scope for example) somewhere near 50x, as any number of sources generally attest (e.g. Sky & Telescope). Perhaps some people can detect the first bit of separation on a good night in an 18x70, but I don't find that terribly satisfying myself, and Roger couldn't, so that's not why he preferred them over the SLC. (He does say he wasn't using a tripod, which seems odd.)

 

[Blue72]

We are clearly using language differently. What I mean by seeing Saturn's rings distinctly does not occur at 18x, but (in my 82mm scope for example) somewhere near 50x, as any number of sources generally attest (e.g. Sky & Telescope). Perhaps some people can detect the first bit of separation on a good night in an 18x70, but I don't find that terribly satisfying myself, and Roger couldn't, so that's not why he preferred them over the SLC. (He does say he wasn't using a tripod, which seems odd.)

It’s not odd, many astrolux users use them handheld. You can minimize shakes by using natural point of aim (using your bones rather then muscle, among other things) and practice

while some astronomers don’t find it satisfying, others like me find it very pleasing to see Saturn framed with other stars.

while 50x might be the suggested minimum. Many users at cloudy nights have taken the challenge of lower magnification. with the definition that your able to see a black gap between the ring and ball. 18x is the first magnification level of which this occurs and seeing doesn’t have to be perfect.

once Again there is no comparison of comparing DSO's in the astrolux vs swaro. The Astro smokes it. It has an effective aperture of an 84mm scope if not more. While the swaro is closer to 60mm. With you owning a 82mm scope you probably know there is no comparison…not to mention the extra magnification of the astro

 

[dries1]

Yes the Astroluxe is an enhanced astro-glass, 3X more and increased aperture, however I much prefer to take the SLC 15X56 when traveling out to a local dark site last minute, just grab and go.

 

[tenex]

I would enjoy trying an Astroluxe sometime. Unfortunately they are rare, and our sky here isn't dark enough anyway.

 

[Maximc1]

Like Roger, I found that my 18x70 Astroluxe pulled ahead of my 15x56 SLC's for night time viewing. But during the day the Nikons were no match for the center focus of the SLC's.

 

[glennd]

i can't say that my 18x astroluxe replaced my 15x 56 slc's, but i did sell the slc's in favor of a pair of 10x 56 victory fl's and a pair of 18x astroluxe after finding the the zeiss and nikons at about the same price as the slc's. i find the 10x 56 configuration nicer for hand held use and the astroluxe terrific on a tripod. (i hope to build a p-mount for the nikons some day.) to me, the slc's straddled these 2 binoculars. while the slc is nearly perfect in so many respects and the victory fl and astroluxe each have their warts, the 2 applications are different enough to warrant different solutions.