Night Vision Scope

I'm expecting a 4X night vision monocular for Christmas. I'm not getting it for astronomy, but I wondered if anybody has looked at the night sky with a similar instrument.

I wonder if you can see things like M31 or possibly nebula with it to any degree. I know they make eyepieces with night vision technology, but was just curious if anyone had any experience with a terrestrial monocular night vision scope.

Daryl

Daryl,

I have used military night vision goggles on many nights and seen many brighter objects in them. M42 is very obvious and M31 looks like a galaxy. This is all at 1x. I estimated the limiting magnitude at zenith on them at 11 ish. I never took a star chart up with me, so I was relying on sketches. The green output from the image intensifiers will kill your night vision, so be careful with that.

Do you know what generation the intensifiers are? There is a big difference in performance (and price) between gen 1 and gen 3 night vision scopes. The stuff we use in the military is gen 3+ or gen 4 depending on who's pair your looking through. If it's a gen 1, then it might be disappointing, but at 4x, you may be able to see some structure in M42.

Clear skies,

Tom

It's a Gen 1 and I am not getting it for astronomical purposes at all I just started wondering if it could resolve some of the nearer but faint objects. I will be using it when fly-fishing rivers at night to scope out potential obstructions and hangers. Not really considering it for any serious observastions, but it struck me that it might provide some astronomical fun.

Thanks.

Daryl

Tom - You're right and I can't afford tht Gen III stuff, I could buy a really big scope for that kind of money.