Is this nikon good

David B · Guest

I was wanting to purchase the Nikon Sky & Earth 15-45x60 Spotting Scope - 7351 w/ Eyepiece but I have a few questions. First off this scope will be used 60% for astronomy and 40% for land viewing. I know you get what you pay for so in your opinion how does this scope preform? You say it comes with an eyepiece so does that mean that I can take it straight out of the box when it arrives and zoom from 15 to 45 power or do I need a seperate eyepiece. I know weather conditions apply to the question so in your expert opinion on an average day how far do you think this scope can zoom and still get a crisp image. Set on 15x how will this scope compair in image quality to my current 10x50 action extreme's? Better ?worse? If there is a better scope out there with a zoom eyepiece and about the same price could you mention it please. Any help would be much appriciated and that will be the sooner I can order from you guys. Thanks Very Happy

opticsplanet.com · Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:17 am Post subject:

Hi

The Sky and Earth is a good spotting scope and it comes with the 15-45x eyepiece. In the angled version, it will be comfortable to use for all but the most overhead objects in the sky. At 15x, image quality will be good, but drop off as you zoom up, though image quality will still be reasonably good for a 60mm scope at 45x.

The biggest limitation on the Sky&Earth as an astronomy scope will be the limited eyepiece selection, meaning you won't ever be able to get mnore than 45x from this scope. Ouch! Worse yet, only Sky&Earth eyepieces will work!

If you are thinking 60% astronomy, a better choice might be a model that uses standard telescope eyepieces such as the LOMO 70, http://www.opticsplanet.net/as70lersp.html or the Meade ETX-90, http://www.opticsplanet.net/meade-etx90ss.html Optics are good and you have litersally hundreds of eyepieces to choose from.
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