reply to post by hiii_98
You can't fight physics. More magnification means less light. You only choice would be to haul a large reflector up the peak, i.e. get back some
aperture.
Night vision is a buzzword. Some night vision is merely a CCD illuminated with IR. This is hardly useful becaues you can't throw IR very far. [I have
a tank IR filter than I put in front of a spotlight, so I have an IR beam that is useful to make 200ft.] Real night vision is starlight illumination,
that is, no IR source used.
You would actually do better with a still camera and a long exposure. If you shoot video, you can stack frames with imagej (a free program). Stacking
frames is a way to reduce the digital noise.
One alternative is to get a CCD B&W video camera and use your telescope in prime focus. [Easy with a refractor scope, sometimes problematic with a
reflector, depending on the back focus. Take at look at the Supercircuits website.
supercircuit camera
I've used this camera with a telescope (i.e. focal plane), using a camcorder to record the video. I've also used the camera with motion picture
c-mount lenses. This camera and a large aperture c-mount lens is pretty close to the crappy hardware store night vision.
I used a less sensitive video camera (P23C I think) in a macro mode to focus on the screen of some soviet era NV I bought. It is gen2, but
substatially better than the crap they pass as NV these days. I did this video with it:
a51 night vision pano
The macro is done with a 13mm lens and a spacer between the lens and CCD camera to get it in macro mode. All this takes a lot of optical hacking.
Now one thing I haven't done, but I suppose I should try is to pull the lens off the nightvision at put it at the back of the telescope. I suppose
this requires a bit more explanation. If you look hard enough, you can find soviet era (or perhaps even modern) night vision that uses a screw mount
lens (Pentax screw mount, not Leica). The soviets saw no need to invent a new camera mount, so they copied the screw mount. Now in theory, you can use
the night vision as a focal plane for the telescope. You amplified the light from the scope, then use the CCD macro to video the back of the night
vision tube.
It will be far cheaper to experiment with the low light CCD camera at the back of the telescope. Better yet, use a DSLR and long integration time.
The night vision that has screw mount lenses is made by Cyclops. Here is a link:
cyclops NV
I'm using a Rostov Cyclop 11b2. The construction is similar to what is shown on the Kiev website. Everything is metal. This is military gear. Mine is
very old, so it has some dark spots on the screen. The good thing is few people know this type of gear exists (well, unless they read my posts), so
you might find one on ebay. That is, the seller might not even realize the lens can be removed.
Occasionally gen3 US NV tubes show up on ebay. Since you are using a telescope, you have all the optics you need, well assuming you can construct a
macro to focus on the NV screen output. The problem is mechanical support. This is really serious hacking.