NIKON Eyepieces

mrngbss · Post by **mrngbss** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 12:35 am

Seems like Nikon is coming out with eyepieces for astronomy.

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news ... 34845.html

Post by **weixing** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 9:06 am

Hi,
Hmm... 72 degree wide angle eyepiece... also got a 1.6x "magnification converter" (sound like a barlow). Most of them will launch in 25 Dec (Christmas) and seem like the 10mm and the 1.6x "magnification converter" will be launch at 12 Mar next year. Found the Nikon Japan website on it:
http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/jpn/whatsne ... -sw_02.htm

Have a nice day.

mrngbss · Post by **mrngbss** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 9:34 am

Interesting that they have gone into this area, since they have not been producing telescopes. Maybe now they want to test market, since Pentax looks like winding down their telescope division. Or maybe they want to use these eyepieces for their spotting scopes.

andeelym · Post by **andeelym** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:21 am

I thought that they were in the eyepiece biz some time ago, although not many. Cos I saw reviews of Nikon eyepieces:
http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/entry.php?s ... ntryid=212 (in 2001)
http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/entry.php?s ... ntryid=292 (in 2005)

Post by **rcj** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:09 am

i believe the NAV line was made for their spotting scopes. Nikon made eyepieces decades ago, and periodically made their appearances in astromart by a guy called Roger Re, that was probably the only american source back then in the late 1990s. But they seemed to sell quite well and expensive. Likewise the NAV line is expensive, almost mimicking the Pentax XW. But would reckon the performance would be nothing less than stirling and should do well for binoviewing. Nikon's fabled F10 4-inch apo back in 1980s and 1990s were compared to be as good as the Zeiss APQs considering the lens technology back then. Thinking of getting the 17.5 but the 21Ethos is a tad tempting right now....

It is a big pity that Pentax has stopped producing refractors altogether. They had one of the flatest fielded FOVs for imaging (right out of the box, no add-on costly flatteners), and did very well for astrophotography. Keeping the P75 permanently. Had managed be looked through the older 125SDP on Jupiter before, and the views were pretty sharp though not as clean as the TOA series, however the Pentax line was made mostly for imaging anyways.