16 Butts Ash Gardens, Hythe, Southampton. SO45 3BL
Night Vision Equipment
Night vision will not turn night into day. It will make the otherwise invisible, visible. At night, the naked eye will only see darkness but a night sight will allow you to see so long as there is a tiny amount of light coming from somewhere. Street lights 4 or 5 miles away on a slightly cloudy night will illuminate the countryside enough for a night sight to allow you to walk safely across country but what you see and how well you see it, depends on how much you want to pay.
A Generation One unit has a photo cathode plate to convert photons into electrons. The electrons are accelerated through a megaphone shaped device called an anode cone onto a phosphor screen running at a higher voltage. It is the use of this cone which causes the focus to be perfect only in the centre of the image. The expected light amplification is between 150 & 400.
Generation Two and 2+ products use a micro channel plate between the photo cathode and phosphor screen. This plate is a bundle of fibre optic cables. As the electrons pass down the fibre optics they bounce off the sides, multiplying with each strike so that the gain is increased by 20000 to 30000. Distortion is reduced and the focus is 100% better across the whole image.
Generation Three. Highest quality but only available to Security Forces.
Magnification. There is a law of physics that applies to binoculars, telescopes and night sights which means that if you increase the magnification and keep the front lens size the same, then the image will get darker. Night sights therefore tend to have low magnification.
Monocular or Binocular eyepiece? Because we are so used to binoculars, we tend to look down on monoculars but they have advantages. They take up less space; they weigh less than half; there is no eye width to worry about and only one focusing eyepiece which makes them quicker to use and more robust. With a monocular night sight you can retain your night vision in one eye so you can still see to look at a map or chart with a dull red light.
Rostovsky Optical – Cyclops –3B. £1200 in foam lined padded aluminium case.
The Cyclops 3B is the most powerful night sight I have ever handled. Powerful in both magnification and light gain. It is a big unit with a magnification of 12 x with the 85 mm lens fitted. This lens is the very high quality f2/85mm Russian copy of a Zeiss lens and is interchangeable with any P42 camera lens ( the screw in Pentax 42 mm fitting ). The eyepiece is binocular with adjustment for different pupil distances. But that is not all - there is an adapter included that takes the binocular eyepiece and the lens (or any Pentax screw fit lens) to allow them to be used in daylight as a telescope. The IR torch ALP-7 has an adjustable beam (adjustable for direction and beam width) that is effective to over 250 m. It is powered by one 9v PP3 battery; the night sight is powered by 4 Penlights. A wider angle view through the night sight can be obtained by changing the front lens for example to a 35 mm standard Pentax fitting camera lens (one is now included in the kit) or the magnification can be increased by fitting for example a 200 mm telephoto Pentax fit camera lens.