The night vision equipment that is available today originally comes to us from the Armed Forces. Other products that got their start in the armed forces are the Web, frozen dried food and the GPS just to name a few. But when it comes to night vision technology I’m not speaking about the stuff that your child are playing with, but the Real McCoy.

In the early days of warfare like today it was common for a operation to take place at night . The reason I think is very obvious. A unit of soldiers are able to preserve the element of surprise until the final moment of attack. History has proved that was not always easy because as you know mans eye does have its limits and executing an attack under the cover of darkness wasn’t always effective with the light of the stars and moon often giving away a battle units position. The Armed Forces have researched tirelessly for years researching many methods to elevate a soldiers vision at night and thanks to their advances the whole playing field of combat warfare has been altered dramatically not to mention the many uses for this technology in the civilian world.

But how does this technology work you ask? Night optics capture the available light using a form of electro magnetic radiation that is outside the range of the human eye. By making use of this sort of light equipment like night goggles, binoculars and scopes it is able to give our eyes vision in the dark helping you to move around normally in almost complete darkness.

Although this night vision scope technology is always improving the two types commonly used are: image intensifiers and thermal imaging devices. Thermal devices work by looking at and scanning the differences in temperature in the direction they are pointed at. The FLIR (Thermal Forward-Looking Infrared) detector option is often used on the military vehicles and rescue helicopters.

Now image intensifiers work by amplifying available light 2-5000 times greater than what the human eye can see. The intensified light makes use of phosphorous screen technology (similar to that used in a TV)enveloped in an eye piece to give the user as close to normal vision as possible. When a soldiers eyepiece is in place, the equipment will amplify available light allowing an image to be transmitted to the eyepiece giving the soldier an image of what he is looking at. The phosphorous monitor or screen is green in color. The human eye can recognize more levels of green than any other color in the visible spectrum giving the soldier to see better in the darkest conditions.

As I mentioned before it is easy to become overwhelmed with the many different ranges of magnifications and models out there in the market today. Different things work for different conditions and situations and this is something the armed forces had to deal with also. When designing equipment for a soldier weight and compact-ability must be taken into consideration and because of this a night vision binocular could be used without any illumination and just using the image intensifiers. This would keep the cost very low resulting in small, low power and lightweight sizes ideal for use in the field.

Some things to remember when you use a set of night goggles, you may find you get a certain amount of tunnel vision because a lot of your peripheral vision is restricted within the eyepiece. Moving non stop will aid you in detecting your surroundings but judging distances accurately can become tricky, as bigger objects will look closer than they actually are and vice-versa. Don’t expect 20/20 vision, maybe 20/25 which way better than what you would see without assistance. The army have the option to work under the shroud of darkness, much like their enemies, allowing for a better chance to capture and defeat when necessary. The FLIRs really do help in locating human energy from within a heavy cover, allowing for the directing of soldiers to a certain area to carry out missions. Rescue missions also have a much higher chance of success with the use of the Night Optics.