How does night vision technology work?
Night Vision scopes and binoculars are electro-optical devices that intensify (or amplify) existing light instead of relying on a light source of their own. The devices are sensitive to a broad spectrum of light, from visible through infrared. An accessory illuminator can increase the light available at the infrared end of the spectrum by casting a beam of light that is not visible to the human eye. You do not look “through” a Night Vision product, you look at the amplified electronic image on a phosphor screen. Light enters the Night Vision product through an objective lens and strikes a photo cathode that has a high-energy charge from the power supply. The energy charge accelerates across a vacuum inside the intensifier and strikes a phosphor screen (like a TV screen) where the image is focused. The eyepiece magnifies the image.
