Light-intensifying night-vision scope (Starlight scope)
Visor nocturno de intensificación de luz (Starlight scope)
- Date
- 1964-1965 · confidence medium
- Place
- Fort Belvoir, Virginia, United States
- Credited to
- US Army Night Vision Laboratory (RCA)
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A passive scope that multiplies starlight and moonlight thousands of times with an image-intensifier tube, allowing sight and aim at night without active infrared light. Used from 1965 in Vietnam, it was the origin of modern night-vision goggles.
The first-generation intensifiers (1960) came from RCA's work, and the Germans and Americans already had active infrared systems in the Second World War (Vampir, Sniperscope); the AN/PVS-2 is the first passive one in service.
What it led to
- night-vision goggles and thermal sights
- night operations of infantry and aviation
- civilian low-light cameras