Originally Posted by
lensman57
The number is just an indication of the percieved ' magnification ' , more accurately known as scale, of the object compared to that seen through a human eye, approximately 42 degrees in diagonal, not both eyes BTW. This is also true for camera , video and so on. Recently with the arrival of the so called action cams another arbitrary and totally incorrect type of X is being quoted, ATN Shot Trak , is a good eaxmple , where the so called magnification is measured against that of the fish eye lens of a Go Pro video camera. For the sake of accuracy and sanity just think of 8X being twice as large as 4X as seen through the occular of the scope.
A.G