Thursday, June 2, 2011

Can I Use My Night Vision Device in Daylight?


One of the number one questions everyone asks is ‘Can I use my night vision device in daylight?’  The short answer is No.  If the light intensifier of your night vision system is exposed to regular sunlight you could permanently damage its light capturing abilities.

Your night vision goggle, binocular, weapon scope or monocular works by collecting and amplifying the natural, limited light source that is available in a low light setting, like from stars or the moon.

Have you ever been in a dark room and someone all of a sudden flips on the lights? Your eyelids immediately slam shut to protect your eyes while they readjust to the new light levels.  This is an excellent example of what happens to your night vision device when turned on in daylight environment.  Only your night vision system doesn’t have eyelids that automatically work to protect itself.  Or do they?

Some companies have introduced certain innovations to compensate for this limitation. Yukon developed their Eclipse™ protective lens covers, implemented, for example, on their Viking series, which by means of specially calculated holes in the lens caps allows the night vision binocular to be used in daylight with the lens cover firmly in place. This spares you the inconvenience of having to pack two pairs of binoculars for those overnight hiking excursions or weekend camping trips.

Another unique approach in the quest for bridging the gap between night and day optic devices is Yukon’s first completely digital NV Ranger. The Digital NV Ranger is a night vision monocular that boasts several advancements over traditional night vision devices, many of which will be discussed in future posting of this blog, but for today’s discussion we’ll focus on it dual ability to operate in both day and night conditions.  Unlike traditional night vision systems, the Ranger lens acts like a camera that captures the images and projects the images on to a mini crystal clear LCD display in the eye piece.

For those of you who have regular night vision devices or night vision systems, here are a couple things you can do to help protect your valuable investment.  When in the light, make sure to the keep the lens caps on over all the lenses of the goggles or binoculars and keep your device in a soft or hard case for protection. When putting your night vision device away, make sure that it is turn off.  This will not only protect the optics from being exposed to any undesired light, but will also save you from buying new batteries as often.

Stay tuned for more valuable tips and information.

Questions, comments or topics you would like to see covered, please contact us at customerservice@NightVisionToday.com