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I happened upon the Vixen 20mm LV at a clearance sale at
the local optics store. The 20mm focal length is one of the
most generally useful and so I figured it would be sure to
get enough use to be worth the price. This has proven to be
true. The Vixen LV is a good, solid eyepiece. With its humble
50 degree apparent field of view, it's not an eyepiece that
jumps out and grabs you, but over time, you learn to appreciate
its virtues. It doesn't generally amaze, but it doesn't disappoint,
either. I go back and forth on my impressions of this eyepiece,
but I seem to keep coming back to it. It's a decent eyepiece
that is one of the most ergonomicaly friendly and optically
easy to use eyepieces around and provides good, predictable
performance.
The Vixen LV is a well built eyepiece with thoughtful ergonomics.
The entire top section of the eyepiece is rubberized which
makes it very easy to grab in the dark, even with cold fingers.
The rubberized body forms a rubber eyecup at the top of the
eyepiece that is effective at blocking stray light and allows
you to press your eye comfortably up to the eyepiece without
worrying about eyelashes freezing to the barrel.
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- Focal length: 20 mm
- Apparent field of view: 50 degrees
- Number of elements: 5
- Optical design: Lanthanum LV
- Manufacturer: Vixen
- Cost: $150, new
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- 20mm eye relief
- Sharp to the edge of the field
of view
- No blackout
- High contrast
- Comfortable to use
- Integrated rubber eyecup
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- Narrow 50 degree field of view
- Low light transmission
- Warm color balance
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The eyepiece
features a nice, wide eye lens that shines with a striking
turquiose and ruby sheen from the multicoatings.
Echoing the physical characteristics of the eypiece, the
optical characteristics of this eyepiece also make it very
easy and comfortable to use. The first thing that you notice
is how easy it is to look through. It has decent eye relief
and no temperamental issues such as blackout. The view through
the Vixen LV is a bit narrow at 50 degrees, but it is quite
sharp across the field. The view is uniform brightness across
the field of view and the field stop is extremely sharp. Such
nice, well behaved characteristics have a down side, however.
Although the eyepiece is very easy to use, it just doesn't
seem to have very high performance. As mentioned previously,
the field of view is quite small. In addition the light throughput
is noticeably less than with other eyepieces. When looking
at the moon, it becomes obvious that the color balance of
the LV is noticeably warmer than with other eyepieces. This
may be due to the bright turquoise reflections from the multicoatings
that were noted earlier. When viewing deep space objects using
this eyepiece, the views seem noticeably dimmer than with
other eyepieces.
The Vixen 20mm LV is a good all around eyepiece for general
observing. If you are looking for a nice, easy to use eyepiece
for looking at the moon and planets, for terrestrial viewing,
and for looking at brighter deep sky objects, then you'd be
happy with this eyepiece. I find this to be one of my favorite
eyepieces for looking at the moon, even compared with more
exotic eyepieces. It would be a nice eyepiece for a small
telescope due to its moderate weight and size. It would also
be a good eyepiece for star parties or for sharing the skies
with non-astronomer friends due to its good natured qualities.
If, however, you are looking for an eyepiece that provides
stunning wide angle views or that can be used to tease out
the finest details of dim deep sky objects, then you'll be
better off with another type of eyepiece.
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