Nirvana UWA-82 review

The Nirvana is finished in distinctive black gloss anodised aluminium with thin chrome bands.

It is provided with a simple, effective and comfortable twist-up rubber eye shield.

This was a little stiff, but we suspect that it will become freer with use.

With a slim 47mm waistline, the Nirvana is less bulky than most similar eyepieces.

This slimline diameter may make it more suitable for binoviewers: with the right distance between them, your nose would fit comfortably between a pair of these.

Eye relief is fine for visual use but not if you wear glasses.

The Nirvana produced good star images across the central field and offered fine detail on the Moon.

The focus was markedly softer towards the edge of the field and there was chromatic aberration.

The Double-Double, the star Epsilon Lyrae, was not as easy to resolve into its four components as with the other eyepieces and we only managed it in the central region of the field.

Colour was slightly less vivid than some eyepieces we've tested, but still pleasing.

We also noted that it was important with the Nirvana to look straight into the eyepiece when viewing bright stars; if we moved our eye slightly off-axis, a blue fringe was created around the target star.

With careful use, however, this effect was not evident, and the views were impressive considering this eyepiece was the least expensive on test.

This review appeared in the February 2010 issue of Sky at Night Magazine