DIY night vision

[FrankenCub]

Thinking this fits in the accessories part. This is pretty cool and easy to make. I bet with some ingenuity it can be fit into a much smaller package and used as an extension to a regular scope.

 

[TMC]

Belive it or not the video game modern warfare2 night vision work fairly nice.I wouldn't stake my life on them but I can see about 50ft with the pair I have from Ebay

 

[3GunDad]

I designed night vision technology to adapt it to telescopes and started a company a few years back to market and sell systems which I fabricated. You do not want Gen 1 or some Gen 2 image intensifiers that require IR illumination to light up your target, you will stick out like a sore thumb and make yourself an easy target for others with NV. The passive Gen 3 image intensifiers do not require IR illumination, and are far superior. In my opinion, if it isn't a passive Gen 3 image intensifier, you are putting yourself in harms way.

 

[FrankenCub]

All my ventures are for hunting purposes so that won't matter. Besides, I can't afford anywheres near $3k for NV. Good point though for defensive goodies.

 

[3GunDad]

I used to hear coyotes in the dark at one of my tree stands and always wondered what would happen if I ran into a pack over a kill while heading to my stand before dawn, NV would be a good idea !

 

[FrankenCub]

Yeah that would be a good use for something like this. Usually if they're over a kill you'll know it long before you get close to them. We have a huge population of them here and they really raise hell, over a kill they fight like mad with each other. People claim there isn't any worries of coyote attacks but I've been stalked through the woods more than once and have bagged a couple when they were making a charge. There will be many people who say BS but there also isn't anything beyond our Galaxy until you look through a telescope.
Speaking of which, that would be sweet, NV on my Celestron C8

 

[3GunDad]

Celestron C8 .... Very nice! They have slow focal ratios and long focal length. F ratio will require a focal reducer to provide sufficient light to image intensifier night vision tube, otherwise the night vision image intensifier tube will be starving for sufficient light and you will get scintillation (flashing dots and poor image or no image). I've used a focal reducer on the C8 with great success. Awesome scope, great views. The focal reducer will increase your field of view as well. Love it ! Clear skies my friend ....

 

[FrankenCub]

Yeah, I've been needing a focal reducer for astro photography. It just way too much for the Moon without it. I caught the affliction after messing with a little 4" dob. I found this C8 with a Mead heavy field tripod for cheap on down on the Island so I took a ride to grab it. Now looking for some property with some privacy to build an observatory to house it in.

I may have to give this type of project a try. I think I still have an old VHS camcorder laying around and a camera will be easy peasy, there's some really good web cams that can be raped for parts.

 

[3GunDad]

I used to use a Mallincam, then got into astrophotography big time, went to a QSI camera which I paired up with a Takahashi FSQ 106 EDX and built an observatory next to the house. This is a link to the Observatory and some of my astrophotography

http://www.scopetrader.com/steppingstone/

 

[FrankenCub]

Ohhhh...I'm jealous ! I'm still using a Canon t1i lol. Great images you have. I didn't get many that were really acceptable, but were decent. I wasn't smart enough to keep copies on cloud so I lost them just before I had to build a new PC. I haven't put much time into it since, I want to have a pier to permanently mount my scope first. It's a major ordeal for me to get set up every night and I'm not all that great at alignment. Going to look at some property tomorrow so who knows, maybe I'll be able to build that observatory.