I get a lot of questions about illuminated reticle rifle scopes. Most of the questions are asking if they have a backup reticle if the illumination fails. The answer is yes. The crosshairs are standard black crosshairs and the illumination part comes from a light that shines on the reticle from inside the scope. The crosshairs are there with or without the illumination feature switched on. The riflescopes generally use readily available CR2032 batteries that can be found at most stores that carry batteries. They're the ones that look like a nickel. The problem with most of these scopes is that by the time your eyes are used to the dark, even the lowest setting on the illumination dial will result in a reticle so bright it drowns out your picture. Sometimes options are gimmicks and sometimes not. Leupold VX-III reticles are good, as are reticles from Swarovski, especially the new High-Grid offerings such as found in the amazing new Z6i. The Z6 series offers the latest in technology with a 6X zoom, something entirely new in rifle scopes.