Ovni-m night vision eyepiece review in Astronomy Now magazine

[GavStar]

I had my ovni-m night vision for six months now and have written a detailed 5 page review of it for Astronomy Now magazine. 
 

Here’s a link where a digital copy can be ordered.

https://shop.astronomynow.com/product/an-June-2021/
 

And some “sneak peek” shots of the actual article taken from the astronomy now website.

 

[Oldfort]

I found this a reaaly useful article.  I've been thinking about getting one of the OVNI-m units for a while now.  It's good to hear about what to expect, and what not to expect from these devices.  Unrealistic expectations can easily lead to buyer's remorse, which given the pricetag, would be unfortunate (to understate matters considerably).

[Deadlake]

@GavStar Has written a good comparison between OVNI and PVS-14 based intensifiers which will save you having to wade through the CN threads on the subject.

While the OVNI does have the cherry picked harder tubes and the prime feature, I think its up to OVNI to respond with a better lens

• Matches the PVS-14 Envis lens
• A little more adaptable on the filter front.

Jonathan @OVNI does know this limitation and has responded on CN he intends to offer an Envis type lens if/when he can source one.  

Well done Gavin and PeterW

[PeterW]

Thanks. It’s good to have more options for people to use. For urban observers and those who like galactic nebulae it a a potent tool. Feel free to ask more questions.

Peter

[joko]

On 25/05/2021 at 17:38, Deadlake said:

While the OVNI does have the cherry picked harder tubes and the prime feature, I think its up to OVNI to respond with a better lens

• Matches the PVS-14 Envis lens
• A little more adaptable on the filter front.

Jonathan @OVNI does know this limitation and has responded on CN he intends to offer an Envis type lens if/when he can source one.  

Thank you for your comment, i always listen to users and i appreciate all advices to help me to bring the best solutions to astronomy community.

1/ About the lens, please note you can also read comments of people who do not like the PVS-14 lens. And the truth is PVS-14 lens is not an ENVIS lens, this is an error to think they are the same, ENVIS is a full product including body and optics.  ENVIS lens are not made anymore. As explained on CN, there is only 1 user who prefers the PVS-14 lens vs the OVNI-M lens, it's Gavin (GavStar). No blame here, i totally respect his preference. But in no case it means the OVNI-M front lens is not good. If you don't like the PVS-14 lens there are no solutions but if you don't like the OVNI-M lens, it's easy to use an other, so there are many solutions. And this is only for afocal use, in prime there is no lens at all with the OVNI-M.

2/ Regarding the adaptable front lens, let's take the PVS-14, you need an adapter to thread to the front lens and it works only with 2" filters. While for the OVNI-M we developed the fastest and easiest adapter, it takes less than 1 second to use a filter, you just need to push the adapter (to attach it) then to pull (to remove it). It doesn't move and you can use 2"... and 1.25" filters (this is only for handheld use, in prime the barrel has thread so you don't need any adapter). So there is absolutely no need of threads. And for afocal, the OVNI-M has 1/4UNC holes on both side to attach securely and strongly the universal afocal adapter (not restricted, it works with all brands of traditional eyepieces). Here again, like for the lens, there are other options to adapt to preferences of all users.

Last but not least, for technical reasons, OVNI-B (binoviewer version) has exactly the same optical (not body) lens than ENVIS lens used to have and also has front thread.

If you have any questions, just send me a private message and I will be happy to help you 🙂

Edited May 29, 2021 by joko

[Highburymark]

Nice one Gavin! 👍

[joko]

I would like to clarify one very important point that was not explained in the review. The PVS-14 is just the "housing". The intensifier tube in the PVS-14 is an OVNI Night Vision "Astronomy grade" tube specially designed for astronomy. 

Around 80% of the price of a Night Vision Device is dependant of the tube.

Edited October 23, 2021 by joko

[GavStar]

1 hour ago, joko said:

I would like to clarify one very important point that was not explained in the review. The PVS-14 is just the "housing". The intensifier tube in the PVS-14 is an OVNI Night Vision "Astronomy grade" tube specially designed for astronomy. 

Around 80% of the price of a Night Vision Device is dependant of the tube.

There is some confusion here. To confirm I have two pvs-14 monoculars. One is a complete setup (ie pvs-14 body and harder nv tube) purchased from actinblack, the other is one I built using a harder tube purchased from ovni and a pvs14 Carson milspec body/lens kit purchased from nighttec in Germany. 

The astronomy now review comparison was done before I received the Carson pvs14 kit and so the comparison was done between the actinblack pvs14 and the ovni-m.

The full review is now available online here

https://astronomynow.com/2021/07/29/reviewed-ovni-m-fom-2600-night-vision-eyepiece/

Edited October 23, 2021 by GavStar