A buddy has an air rifle and he wants to shoot targets in his backyard during low light conditions.  Maybe even at night with very little light. Targets are approximately 35 yds away. But he doesn't want strictly NV as he wants to use it during the day also..

Any ideas?

Has he tried a regular scope with a red lamp?

Many varmint hunters live in areas where the NV stuff isn't allowed, but a red lamp is legal.

They make really good red lamps as a result.

If you clamp one aligned to the bore and use a hand held or one on a head band, you can search wide areas and then line up the rifle.

It isn't hard to get decent scopes to work like this.

My back yard range is only 25yds. What I did, used a solar yard spot light. You can find them for around $10 at just about any home improvement store, I think Wal-Mart even has them. I Placed it about 3ft from my pellet trap pointed directly at the center. The light provided for 8hrs+ is plenty bright to see the target Using a regular scope. Even though I have a lighted reticle, I found using the reticle without the light was better..

Now if he wants to shoot at stuff that's not fixed, some form of NV scope would be the best.

Might try a Hawk Panorama scope. Mine has a 56mm front objective, and it lights up blue or red.

I put a UTG 4-12x scope on mine with illuminated reticle. I can shoot cloverleaf with it at 25 yards in the backyard. Works great for an air rifle day or night.