100% worth it. If you have astrophotography gear like I did, sell it and get NV. Now I view those “photo only” objects in real time. I bought a used Gen3+ unit for only 2k.
@@DakotaStarryNights I got my PVS14 to run on my helmet with my AR and IR illuminator for aiming… then I looked up at the stars and also got into astronomy!
You sold me on Night vision with your prior videos on it . I also ended up with the Hubble 12 inch because of your Hubble review. I really like the 12 but it took some modding to make it really sweet.
NV is a game changer for me. The HO 12 looked really cool. Like a guy could put in a backpack and head out to wilder places where it's good and dark. 😊🪐💫
ever since my friend let me borrow his PVS 14, and I added a hydrogen alpha filter to it, it is and still is an amazing experience to use night vision to scan the milky way
Man almost forgot about night vision. Moving from a bortle 6 to bortle 1 next week and never have seen a night sky that dark with any optics. Had to cancel my Hubble 12” to make the move but seeing your 6” refractor think my 6” reflector will do. My place visibly is low with redwoods and gonna be moving around a lot anyway for a 12”
Bortle 1 should be amazing! I don’t have NV but have read a lot about it. At bortle 1 most galaxies will look better without NV, GCs probably get the edge without NV, but nebula still win with NV unless color is very important and even then it depends. In terms of it being worth it, I think viewing regularly from bortle 1 without NV is somewhat of a dream for many of us. NV helps somewhat overcome the inconvenience of not being able to travel to dark skies regularly, but also get the best view possible of some objects like the horse head nebula. If I was in bortle 1 I probably wouldn’t bother with NV, but bortle 4 and above I still would (I’m at 5/6 currently).
Night vision is an interesting option, however the 'real scenery feel' and color afforded in the 16" cannot be discounted. More than 22 years ago I used a 0 Lux Sony handicam to image the night sky through an 8" SCT as well as wide sky for meteor showers. I could see the ring and such through the 8" recorded 480x480 low resolution. But what it showed me is that NV and other live assisted devices have the drawback of false color and seeing the electronic photon to pixel conversion giving the scintillation of the background. This is where I enjoyed the naked eye live moreso though I'd miss out on nebulosity extension which the NV helps show up. With modern stacking software there are now devices coming online to fit the niche between expensive NV and full EAA with computers and such.
I agree with you for the most part. But I don't believe I totally discounted the use of a 16" dob over NV. NGC 6960 was amazing that night with the Thousand Oaks OIII filter on had on hand without NV. It was, if I recall correctly, delicious and superior to NV. 🙂 There are other less expensive options to NV as you pointed out. They do take a little more time to setup. But the real downside, one has to look at objects on a computer screen or tablet. We're already looking at computer screens all the time; which may be why I've notice during "outreach" folks prefer the intimacy of looking at an object through an eyepiece, NV or not. Thanks for posting, it's a great subject. 💫
Hi there; Well, the Bandmate Type II is essentially an OIII filter. While this is a great filter for planetary nebula or the Veil Nebula, NGC 6960, it would not be a good choice for a Night Vision setup. A Ha filter, 7nm to 4nm, is best suited for Night Vision to dial back light pollution. 💫
@@DakotaStarryNights thank you so much for how active you are in these comments. So to be clear a Astronomik H-Alpha 6 nm CCD Filter - 2" Round Mounted should be perfect? Was thinking of getting an adapter with just this filter & NV and use even without my 8” Dob… have you ever given that a try. Naturally for deep sky the telescope is the answer but I’m imagining something special even without the telescope?
@@TransformersHoarder An Astronomik H-Alpha 6 nm CCD Filter - 2" Round Mounted would do the trick. It could also be use for astophotography. I haven't tried using one with just a PVS14. But I have use just the PVS14 pointed at the Milky Way. Amazing! And for meteor showers it lets you see a lot more of them. Especially the fainter one.💫
Looking into the TV Night Vision for my TV85 refractor. I’m mainly a visual user with all TV EP’s. I’m older and portability is key. 16” Dob would be sweet, but too much work. I’m in Palm Springs area and we’re a bortle7/8, frick’n horrible with poor seeing.. most of time. So, I drive a bit to dark sky’s, best is 4, maybe 3 east of Joshua tree National park. That’s just Desert. So, will do more research on the night vision. Cool video! Thank You
I do have 16 inch non-goto dob. I am thinking of getting a night vision but it's also a big buck. Many suggest PVS-14 white phos but I am wondering is it the only option in the market? For eyepiece market there are a lot of alternative good products.
The PVS14 green version produces more contrast as reported by some. I have the green version and find if I dial the gain back it reduces the green background if I want. As far as the eyepiece, keep in mind it needs to have the same interface as TelVue in order to for the ring adapter to work.💫
Great video! How about the improvement in magnitude using te device with the big dob? What do you think of the resolution usingthe device? It looks to be negatvely impacted to some extent, at least with your camera images. The globular shown was a good example. The star images aren't exactly pinpoints. I don't know if that was partly because of seeing. Woould there be good resolution on the trapesium? Like good definition ofthe D and E stars? I know exactly what you are saying conerning the big dob and a filter on the veil. Just astounding, and maybe because of the excellent contrast, compared to the device?
With NV there is an improvement in magnitude with any scope. But NV is not so much about resolution. However, at the eyepiece it's much better than what the camera is showing here due to focus issues and the limits of video recording. The main advantage to NV is seeing faint objects that otherwise would not be visible or would show very little structure. For outreach, it's a game changer. But as stated at the end of the video, with NV and a big dob you can have the best of both worlds. :)
@@dgdave2673 mostly for objects like globular clusters. Something to do with cutting off at a certain wavelength. Worth trying a few diagonals out and see if it shows a difference
No color in the objects. But a green PVS14 offers a little more contrast. Outside of that, not having colored objects doesn't make that much of a difference. However, seeing the objects using night vision does makes a huge difference. It's a game changer.
i really need your help friend. i have a canon 80D camera with fish eye and 100-300mm lens. I have been told you can get good filters for night vision but the military grade equipment for my camera costs thousands!
The only night vision device I've worked with is a PVS14. As far as I know they are not compatible with your camera. You might want to try EAA, Electronic Assisted Astronomy, which employs live stacking to produce images. There is a treasure trove of information here: www.cloudynights.com/forum/73-electronically-assisted-astronomy-no-post-processing/ Clear Skies!
Really interesting, thanks a lot. I’m here after trying my sub $€£100 discount store (Lidl) ‘image intensifier’ on summer twilight Jupiter. It has really coarse resolution and a 50mm lens but I was amazed to see how well it brought up the moons even hand held. It was miles better than an image stabilised 12x36 bino. Anyway thanks again, I’ll look for more and sub’.
I caught the Veil on a super-clear autumn evening with my 10” Dob and Lumicon OIII from my 4.5 Bortle front yard no problem. I had a great observing session this past summer at Cherry Springs PA and was able to see the OWL, spiral structure in M51 averted vision, dumbbell-ring very bright with detail, M64 Black Eye and Sombrero Galaxy dark lane With my “SIX” inch star watcher dob. Folks it’s about light pollution and not aperture!
Congrats on that Veil capture. It's a tough one at times. Spiral structure in M51 is also a great capture, especially in a 6" dob! I'd agree light pollution is a bigger factor than aperture. But, what's also worth noting is the visual experience of the person in front of the eyepiece. Which, from your report, you've have. 👍
I totally agree, my 8 inch scope looked better on M51 at the Grand Canyon (really dark) than my Obsession 22 ever showed it. (I had my Obsession in almost as dark skies but never had good seeing). I've subsequently sold the 22 as it was much harder to move around and after the realization that it was about finding darker skies rather than bigger scopes! (and I have night vision too and that's a great equalizer)
dont understand all your language .. pbs14 whatever. We dont know what is what. Would be nice if you would take the second to tell us what equipment you are using, not a minute, just a second. ie. 14", ... what is refractor? mirror lens? etc. only takes seconds because we are considering getting into the hobby.
Hey there Amazing, there's a link in the bottom of the video description above that has the information you seek: th-cam.com/video/6usKtqpVMi8/w-d-xo.html Clear Skies!
hey if another mountain lion comes and your wife is there, all you have to do is run faster than her. 🤣 wow, how can people buy just one telescope? 😎 so many toys. thanks.
100% worth it. If you have astrophotography gear like I did, sell it and get NV. Now I view those “photo only” objects in real time. I bought a used Gen3+ unit for only 2k.
That was a good buy for Gen3+
@@DakotaStarryNights I got my PVS14 to run on my helmet with my AR and IR illuminator for aiming… then I looked up at the stars and also got into astronomy!
@@stevo4535 That's pretty cool!
You sold me on Night vision with your prior videos on it . I also ended up with the Hubble 12 inch because of your Hubble review. I really like the 12 but it took some modding to make it really sweet.
NV is a game changer for me. The HO 12 looked really cool. Like a guy could put in a backpack and head out to wilder places where it's good and dark. 😊🪐💫
ever since my friend let me borrow his PVS 14, and I added a hydrogen alpha filter to it, it is and still is an amazing experience to use night vision to scan the milky way
It's a game changer for sure, Christa. Happy Holidays!
Man almost forgot about night vision. Moving from a bortle 6 to bortle 1 next week and never have seen a night sky that dark with any optics. Had to cancel my Hubble 12” to make the move but seeing your 6” refractor think my 6” reflector will do. My place visibly is low with redwoods and gonna be moving around a lot anyway for a 12”
Wow, that sweet! Bortle 1! Congrats.
Bortle 1 should be amazing! I don’t have NV but have read a lot about it. At bortle 1 most galaxies will look better without NV, GCs probably get the edge without NV, but nebula still win with NV unless color is very important and even then it depends.
In terms of it being worth it, I think viewing regularly from bortle 1 without NV is somewhat of a dream for many of us. NV helps somewhat overcome the inconvenience of not being able to travel to dark skies regularly, but also get the best view possible of some objects like the horse head nebula. If I was in bortle 1 I probably wouldn’t bother with NV, but bortle 4 and above I still would (I’m at 5/6 currently).
Night vision is an interesting option, however the 'real scenery feel' and color afforded in the 16" cannot be discounted.
More than 22 years ago I used a 0 Lux Sony handicam to image the night sky through an 8" SCT as well as wide sky for meteor showers. I could see the ring and such through the 8" recorded 480x480 low resolution. But what it showed me is that NV and other live assisted devices have the drawback of false color and seeing the electronic photon to pixel conversion giving the scintillation of the background. This is where I enjoyed the naked eye live moreso though I'd miss out on nebulosity extension which the NV helps show up.
With modern stacking software there are now devices coming online to fit the niche between expensive NV and full EAA with computers and such.
I agree with you for the most part. But I don't believe I totally discounted the use of a 16" dob over NV. NGC 6960 was amazing that night with the Thousand Oaks OIII filter on had on hand without NV. It was, if I recall correctly, delicious and superior to NV. 🙂
There are other less expensive options to NV as you pointed out. They do take a little more time to setup. But the real downside, one has to look at objects on a computer screen or tablet. We're already looking at computer screens all the time; which may be why I've notice during "outreach" folks prefer the intimacy of looking at an object through an eyepiece, NV or not. Thanks for posting, it's a great subject. 💫
For Night Vision setup such as yours would you use a filter like the Tele Vue Bandmate
Type Il Nebustar UHC
2" Filter to help combat light pollution?
Hi there; Well, the Bandmate Type II is essentially an OIII filter. While this is a great filter for planetary nebula or the Veil Nebula, NGC 6960, it would not be a good choice for a Night Vision setup. A Ha filter, 7nm to 4nm, is best suited for Night Vision to dial back light pollution. 💫
@@DakotaStarryNights thank you so much for how active you are in these comments. So to be clear a Astronomik H-Alpha 6 nm CCD Filter - 2" Round Mounted should be perfect? Was thinking of getting an adapter with just this filter & NV and use even without my 8” Dob… have you ever given that a try. Naturally for deep sky the telescope is the answer but I’m imagining something special even without the telescope?
@@TransformersHoarder An Astronomik H-Alpha 6 nm CCD Filter - 2" Round Mounted would do the trick. It could also be use for astophotography. I haven't tried using one with just a PVS14. But I have use just the PVS14 pointed at the Milky Way. Amazing! And for meteor showers it lets you see a lot more of them. Especially the fainter one.💫
Thanks for the video, interesting comparison.
You're welcome!
Looking into the TV Night Vision for my TV85 refractor. I’m mainly a visual user with all TV EP’s. I’m older and portability is key. 16” Dob would be sweet, but too much work. I’m in Palm Springs area and we’re a bortle7/8, frick’n horrible with poor seeing.. most of time. So, I drive a bit to dark sky’s, best is 4, maybe 3 east of Joshua tree National park. That’s just Desert. So, will do more research on the night vision. Cool video! Thank You
Great video! Now i need a telescope.
Now I'm wondering have I done the right thing.ordered a 16 dob.going from a 10"my biggest refractor is a cheap 5" acromat
I liked your presentation with funny touch of BIG sky Light OFF/ON trick :P
😊 Thanks!
I do have 16 inch non-goto dob. I am thinking of getting a night vision but it's also a big buck. Many suggest PVS-14 white phos but I am wondering is it the only option in the market? For eyepiece market there are a lot of alternative good products.
The PVS14 green version produces more contrast as reported by some. I have the green version and find if I dial the gain back it reduces the green background if I want. As far as the eyepiece, keep in mind it needs to have the same interface as TelVue in order to for the ring adapter to work.💫
Great video! How about the improvement in magnitude using te device with the big dob? What do you think of the resolution usingthe device? It looks to be negatvely impacted to some extent, at least with your camera images. The globular shown was a good example. The star images aren't exactly pinpoints. I don't know if that was partly because of seeing. Woould there be good resolution on the trapesium? Like good definition ofthe D and E stars? I know exactly what you are saying conerning the big dob and a filter on the veil. Just astounding, and maybe because of the excellent contrast, compared to the device?
With NV there is an improvement in magnitude with any scope. But NV is not so much about resolution. However, at the eyepiece it's much better than what the camera is showing here due to focus issues and the limits of video recording. The main advantage to NV is seeing faint objects that otherwise would not be visible or would show very little structure. For outreach, it's a game changer. But as stated at the end of the video, with NV and a big dob you can have the best of both worlds. :)
@@DakotaStarryNights Thanks for the additional info.
Nice job Richard (and your Wife). 😂😊CS & GB!
Thanks kip! BTW: That was a nice capture of M33 you pulled down that night!
Do you only use NV with the 55mm or so you use other powers as well?
A 35mm TeleVue Pan-optic is really great too. Though the 55mm Plossl will give you the fastest speed and so more light.
Make sure to not use a dielectric diagonal with NV if possible
Any idea why? I have a nice dielectric diagonal
@@dgdave2673 mostly for objects like globular clusters. Something to do with cutting off at a certain wavelength. Worth trying a few diagonals out and see if it shows a difference
Thru nightvision do you see color in objects? or do the views always look monochrome or green?
Thanks!
No color in the objects. But a green PVS14 offers a little more contrast. Outside of that, not having colored objects doesn't make that much of a difference. However, seeing the objects using night vision does makes a huge difference. It's a game changer.
Like your new living room.
Thanks! The Missis likes it too. 😆
16in dob with gen 3 wp filmless pvs 14 here
That's a great combo. Congrats!
What PVS 14 is it?
It's in the description: 💫
Yes. Plus, when the boog starts toure a step up on others.
Getting closer, huh?
i really need your help friend. i have a canon 80D camera with fish eye and 100-300mm lens. I have been told you can get good filters for night vision but the military grade equipment for my camera costs thousands!
The only night vision device I've worked with is a PVS14. As far as I know they are not compatible with your camera. You might want to try EAA, Electronic Assisted Astronomy, which employs live stacking to produce images. There is a treasure trove of information here: www.cloudynights.com/forum/73-electronically-assisted-astronomy-no-post-processing/
Clear Skies!
@@DakotaStarryNights many thanks!!!!
Thanks for vid
You're welcome!
Nothing compares to night vision!!
Amen. 😄
Great video my friend. It’s been awhile since I have posted on your channel.
Thanks Dronz!
I'd be interested to see how a DLSR with the IR filter physically removed from the sensor would do.
not even close to NV for real time
@@dominickzaucha What camera were you using to try this?
@@Jacmac1 NEX5N
@@Jacmac1 Also tried my 533mc with the same cmount 1.2f lens i use with the NV, no
comparison unless you up the exposure time
@@dominickzaucha You had the IR filter physically removed?
You should really upgrade your microphone.
On order, Weta. The remote mic I had died on me in the middle of the shoot.🎤🙁
Really interesting, thanks a lot. I’m here after trying my sub $€£100 discount store (Lidl) ‘image intensifier’ on summer twilight Jupiter. It has really coarse resolution and a 50mm lens but I was amazed to see how well it brought up the moons even hand held. It was miles better than an image stabilised 12x36 bino. Anyway thanks again, I’ll look for more and sub’.
Thanks!
Get a Nikon p1000 and look at stars. It will blow your mind
Get a mediocre zoom camera and see horribly distorted stars. Great idea 😂
👍🏼
I caught the Veil on a super-clear autumn evening with my 10” Dob and Lumicon OIII from my 4.5 Bortle front yard no problem.
I had a great observing session this past summer at Cherry Springs PA and was able to see the OWL, spiral structure in M51 averted vision, dumbbell-ring very bright with detail, M64 Black Eye and Sombrero Galaxy dark lane With my “SIX” inch star watcher dob.
Folks it’s about light pollution and not aperture!
Congrats on that Veil capture. It's a tough one at times. Spiral structure in M51 is also a great capture, especially in a 6" dob! I'd agree light pollution is a bigger factor than aperture. But, what's also worth noting is the visual experience of the person in front of the eyepiece. Which, from your report, you've have. 👍
I totally agree, my 8 inch scope looked better on M51 at the Grand Canyon (really dark) than my Obsession 22 ever showed it. (I had my Obsession in almost as dark skies but never had good seeing). I've subsequently sold the 22 as it was much harder to move around and after the realization that it was about finding darker skies rather than bigger scopes! (and I have night vision too and that's a great equalizer)
With NV I'd say you're all set. 👌@@kermitzforg
8” F6 dob is my “if I can only have one scope” +NV from light polluted skies is about as perfect as you can get for the $
Agreed. And when you're not using it for visual work, the fast f4 makes it great for narrowband imaging. 💫
dont understand all your language .. pbs14 whatever. We dont know what is what. Would be nice if you would take the second to tell us what equipment you are using, not a minute, just a second. ie. 14", ... what is refractor? mirror lens? etc. only takes seconds because we are considering getting into the hobby.
Hey there Amazing, there's a link in the bottom of the video description above that has the information you seek: th-cam.com/video/6usKtqpVMi8/w-d-xo.html
Clear Skies!
hey if another mountain lion comes and your wife is there, all you have to do is run faster than her. 🤣 wow, how can people buy just one telescope? 😎 so many toys. thanks.
Holy crap how is your audio so bad