Natural Night Vision: An Introduction
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ค. 2024
- 00:00 - Introduction
00:51 - Some Science
04:56 - Recap
05:20 - Night Adaptation Process
06:29 - Primal Origins
08:44 - History of Red Light
11:02 - Red Light Goggles
15:28 - Myths: Pirate Eyepatch Method
18:05 - Myths: Vitamin A and Carrots
23:30 - Night Adaptation Useful, Maybe?
25:20 - Personal Use Cases
29:31 - General Tips
32:26 - Risks
33:16 - Closing Thoughts
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Pilot school teaches that you scan the area you’re looking at in a sweeping motion, using peripheral vision to pick out movement. Not stopping and fixating on a single point and using shadows when possible, you learn quickly how to see in the dark and how quickly you can hallucinate things.
I intend to night hunt coyotes for the first time next season. Currently concluded that a headlamp-style spotlight (specifically the Wicked Lights ScanPro) combined with a weapon-mounted spotlight (specifically the FOXPRO Gunfire) is a great way to go if not using NV. Does that sound reasonable to you?
@@prepperpov5852 just make sure that when you look down your sights your headlamp doesn't focus on the rifle
That was actually something I figures out when I was young as a gamer. I would always stop when sniping in battlefield and just focus on a fixed point and I would pick up the slightest movement. It helps greatly in real life too especially at night
@@djcoopes7569 biggest thing with that is no backflash on your face, I currently have an ir light mounted as far forward as I can on my rifle so my rifle doesn’t catch any of the light
@@fredchain58 exactly
The carrots thing is absolutely fascinating; As a child my grandfather/mother told me that carrots were important to eat because they help your vision! Lol grandpa served during ww2...and grandma was of course around for it too.
And yes...I didn't doubt them for a second and I ate....ALLLLL of the carrots ALL the time lol
Vitamin A is required for night vision, but probably not "increased" night vision. The literature is thick with data on its requirement and the lack of it thereby inducing "night-blindness" - even attributed to the night-blindness of the german army in 1916.
As a professional historian that specializes in Privateers. I can assure you there was no eye patch night vision preservation system in the historic record. If they did it they would have left a record in their journals and log books. These men wrote everything down. I have recipes for stink bombs and toxic smoke bombs used to clear decks. Privateers explicitly describe combat operation with both how a why they did what they do. Privateer journals are handbooks of hard learned lessons....
Id love to learn more about that!! Any good links?
I would also like some book recommendations about privateers.
@@NinjaofApathy The "William Dampier" series of books are reprints of actual journals and log books. I found a handful of doubloons where one of those books said a ship went down in central america... They are a dry read because it is like reading a person's diary. Entertainment wise Black sails is the best researched media ever played. The take incidents from actual history and drop it into a single narrative as a continuance of Treasure Island (another good example of privateers/pirates.)
@@atluslibre9851 The "William Dampier" series of books are reprints of actual journals and log books. I found a handful of doubloons where one of those books said a ship went down in central america... They are a dry read because it is like reading a person's diary. Entertainment wise Black sails is the best researched media ever played. The take incidents from actual history and drop it into a single narrative as a continuance of Treasure Island (another good example of privateers/pirates.)
@@NinjaofApathy he "William Dampier" series of books are reprints of actual journals and log books. I found a handful of doubloons where one of those books said a ship went down in central america... They are a dry read because it is like reading a person's diary. Entertainment wise Black sails is the best researched media ever played. The take incidents from actual history and drop it into a single narrative as a continuance of Treasure Island (another good example of privateers/pirates.)
Back in the caveman days when there were no optics on your rifle and the only night vision was this new-fangled device called a Starlight scope, we were trained in night vision. Rifle qualification included "Night Fire" which was half your qualification score.
Were there rifles back in caveman days?... Of course! Caveman Marksmanship 101: "T-Rex hunting after midnight on moonless nights"
@@btchhopperou812 he told something out of his old days and you are making fun out of it. Kinda funny tho.
Starlight was one of the early stages of night vision devices so far as I know.
The combination of full moon, snow cover and clouds makes the night so bright
Night in winter here is just about never truly dark. It's pretty cool.
Ah, at last! The carrot producers conspiracy will be discussed! I always knew they were connected to the military-industrial complex.
Good one mate!
BIG CARROT EXPOSED
According to the video they lied to us about carrots and kept a powerful war technology (RADAR) secret. I wonder if they had some kind of directed energy weapon that could bring down, say, tall buildings, if they would even tell us?
On the eye patch myth, I recall reading in “a soldiers pocketbook” that one may preserve their natural night vision in one eye from things like star shells, flares, and other sudden, disappearing light sources in the middle of the night by covering one eye. I can personally attest that, at the very least your covered eye will still have its acclimation and the uncovered eye will be almost useless.
For those of you that want to use the red tint on your iPhone to preserve night vision for navigation apps or something you can go to settings, accessibility, display and text, color filters, and then turn them on and move the Hue slider over to red. This works pretty well especially if you have the brightness turned down. I use it a lot for hunting when I’m navigating into my stand before daylight.
This explains a lot of things I have observed over the years but didn’t fully understand. Thanks
this. Thanks
I (think) I heard this from a podcast with an SOG guy:
Don't sweep your eyes left to right...scan eyes right to left. The reason is (possibly?) related to our natural reading pattern and probably some other factors, but I can personally attest, it does help a little bit at least when scanning the dark for movement.
Can you explain the difference?
@@DraconisMarchVII left to right is smother, right to left your eyes are more focused. Left brain/right brain
Depends on the direction of the noise...
Honestly im not sure if any answers so far are correct. Maybe it could just be some type of mindfulness thing...but i have heard from second-hand, but experienced sources that it helps.
Specifically with detecting movement in the dark (which is what you're looking for in dark environments ofc)
Your brain is programmed to do things in a „left to right“ manner, think of reading for example.
If you break this process by scanning from right to left, you break that habbit and your brain picks up more details and things you would otherwise miss, obviously works at day time also.
Holy crap! When I fish at night, I’ve found that my peripheral vision sees objects better than focused/center vision! I didn’t know that was an actual natural night vision technique. This is a fun and very informative video. Thanks!
keeping one eye closed if there is an artificial light at night does help. When you reopen in the dark again, you do initially lose depth perception until your brain figures out that one eye is seeing much better than the other and switches dominance to it. At least that's been my experience. That all said, ship captains wore eye patches to cover their bad eye which was blinded by years of taking sun sightings through a sextant.
Nicely done! Brought back some o'l pre-NOD USMC training. In conjunction: a great source of excellent ops info are "night fighting" WWII Japanese (translated) military manuals. The Imperial Japanese Army specialized in night infiltration tactics.
Tip: If you will be going from light to dark keep one eye covered or fully closed and open it just before going into the dark.
Edit: I mainly use it for going to the bathroom mainly.
Pirates didn't use eyepatches for night vision but astronauts did. Before taking sightings with a sextant, Apollo astronauts would wear an eye patch to get one eye accustomed to the dark. Closing one eye before going into a bright area will preserve a lot of ones night vision in the closed eye. This is really useful when using the bathroom at a movie theatre.
Thanks for the interesting video.
Did that in night recon training as well, get used to closing your dominant eye when a bright source of light appears to preserve its ability to see better in the dark.
I did this in Iraq as well.
Lmao, I do this when I piss at night so I dont stub my toe going back to bed!
Years ago I was on a long hike during the summer and to avoid hiking under the strongest sun and heat we did the majority of our walking at night, 2 or 3 am to 11 am. Even through the woods if the sky was clear you could see perfectly well. On a night with a full moon, it was even brighter. Reading our standard 1:50K or 1:25K maps was no problem.
Another great video guys!
The amount of snark lathered in this video is quite out of character of you yet very much appreciated. Consider this viewer simultaneously educated and entertained!
Dude you have such a relaxing voice, I could fall asleep to this.
Don't you dare
I end up watching these vids like 4 times, because every time I do I fall asleep. I have to listen to them at work later to retain the info
Gay.
True, the "S2 dude" has a great voice.
@@garthstruddlefudd8408 No homo tho
I discovered the technique of using my periphery to see objects--usually the stars--at night, but always thought it was because I looked at the sun so much as a kid that my rods were depleted; I guess that just compounded with the natural scarcity of rods in the center of the retina.
Also--I'd love to see a video on nighttime use of binos.
P.S. All the "dome piece" and "jelly roll" comments are what make this channel so good.
The green phosphor screen in night vision can be switched/converted to red too. They usually choose green because our eyes are most sensitive to green light but if the brightness of night vision isn't an issue, then you can preserve dark adapted eyes with red light night vision.
All I can say is that it was clearly adjective day when the script was written. Well done, well done
The camp fire tradition always gets me?
You Can’t see anything past it’s light in the dark but anything in the dark can see you!
Hell a spark from fire starter/lighter can zap eyes for several minutes. Don’t watch someone start fire & or keep one eye closed? 🤔😎
I like full moon camping & fishing the mostest!
Your comment about seeing things at night better by viewing them with the edges of your vision rather than the front is very true for me. If I look at something directly at night once my vision has settled, the object becomes darker sometimes to the point of not being visible, and the entire area becomes almost pixilated. As soon as I view it view it with what you designated the "Zone 2" it becomes much clearer. I think this whole conversation is very important for Full moon nights, where once your vision settles it's actually bright enough to see some color and see across open terrain rather easily. In those circumstances, focusing on your natural night vision may be preferable to running nods, given the extra field of view, the reduction in signature (mainly the light shining out the back of the unit, and the potential glare off the lens). On full moon nights, the dynamic changes alot, and people with night vision devices no longer have a monopoly on the night. That is important to remember and plan for accordingly.
Thanks for this one S2, this topic drove me nuts with research and i was pleasantly surprised it was addressed. One helpful tip not mentioned that i read about, shinobi in feudal Japan would go prone if seeing anything that looked human in the dark. While this helped hide them, it also did 3 other things, outlined the shape against the horizon by changing perspective, allowing the shinobi to feel and listen for vibration and sound of movement in the ground and made using ones peripherals by angling the head down see clearer. A low crouch when moving is not just to present a smaller target, it helps you see better.
Having said all that, thermal optics are an insanely huge force multiplier that renders most of that stuff useless. Looking forward to the next video.
Glad you're back on the uploads! Your videos are amazing. Thank you!
The humor had me chuckling all the time, awesome job!
Though I'm not in any Military Service, I find this info extremely interesting, and have practiced natural night vision myself.
I believe most of s2 underground's work is for civilians. Knowledge transfer ya know??
Another well researched and well done presentation. Thank you.
Atmospheric pressure may affect your eye chart performance more than carrots.
Outside of being poked in the eye by a carrot.
13:17 this is gold, red filters made specifically for flashlights are overpriced as hell
On apple phones you can use a red color tint mode to turn the entire screen into red light which works pretty well for night vision preserving
On the peripheral vision being really good at night, a great way to test this is to look at the 7 sisters nebula. When you look directly at it, you see very faint dots, but looking just beside it makes it come to life and you can see all the detail and dust very clearly. It's kind of freaky.
Some of the FPV (drone) cameras have excellent night vision. Caddx, Foxeer and Runcam all have great color night vision cameras for about $50+
The Caddx Polar is one of my favorites. I'm making a cheap but effective pair of night vision goggles for about $200 (including batteries etc) with a Caddx Polar and a $100 pair of FPV goggles
Dude this video is as fly as Bill Nye was back in the day. Well done bro you deff provide unique important realities.
Honestly the limitations of both analog night vision devices and the naked eye that you expertly outlined are why I think that digital night vision is the way of the future when the technology develops more. Thanks for the videos!
I recently got my first NV setup about 6 months ago and have been training with it as much as I can and using it for normal stuff around the house and taking walks, hikes with it and I found that having an adjustable iris is a must. I watched a video and made my own off parts from Amazon for my PVS14 and it helps a ton when trying to see things up close. Then with just the flick of a finger I can open and close and adjust letting less or more light in that I want. When it’s closed I can actually see clear in front of me and when I open it I can see clearly far away. Having NV and an IR illuminator and laser is damn near like a cheat code in a video game once you get good with it which I’m not claiming to be as I’m nowhere near as good with it as I am shooting with just an optic. Passive aiming isn’t bad either but having an Eotech on a unity riser helps cause having the optic higher helps and now I like shooting like that even without nods where I use more of a chin rather than a cheek weld
Finally a night vison video for the poors
This video talked me out of a pvs 14 purchase.
Thanks for the informative and entertaining video, S2! Appreciate everything y'all pit out, especially the non-glamorous topics.
Very well made and informative! thank you for sharing this
I can vouch for the periphery night vision. My dad was in the navy and he told me that spotters were trained to report any night time sightings they saw out of the corner of their eye, even if it disappears when looked at straight
All us Corpsman watching say sweet job describing this. I love 💕 your jiggy humor. The Navy looooves red light
i think this could be useful when an obviously underarmed milita only have a 1 or 2 sets of nvg. some tactics could be adapted where natural night vision has its use.
Flir modules for smartphones are ~$200 entry level. Phone pic rail system would be a ghetto way.
Or ask a National Guardsman if you can barrow his. Ask him if you can barrow some ammo. If you ask nicely, maybe even some MRE’s.
TH-cam algorithms didnt show your videos until i myself went to your channel. 5 eye glowing man can be behind it.
That was a very informative and well rounded video, as always
Keep up the good work man! I enjoy your videos and have learned so much!
Excellent presentation, and this has major implications for the use of illuminated optics at night. Light in that tube can go two ways AND effectively blind you as well.
This is the content I love you guys for! Way to go s2
I learned a really scary thing about DJI drones this week. The transmissions from DJI drones can be picked up from anyone with the appropriate equipment. The drone continuously broadcasts its location AND the location of the pilot. There a company which records this information in many large cities and sells the information to law enforcement. DJI drones also broadcast a unique identifier which could be traced by to the DJI account holder. It would likely take a subpoena to get the information but I doubt DJI would fight very hard to keep the information private.
The drone footage shown at 26:39 is very likely a DJI FPV Drone. The way the drone flies, the look of the propellers and sound (hear elsewhere online) exactly match a DJI FPV Drone. Hopefully the Russians don't have the tech to intercept the radio signal.
I'll find the company recording drone info if there's an interest. I don't recall the name now but I'm sure I could find it.
>Hopefully the Russians don't have the tech to intercept the radio signal.
ha. HAHAHAHAHAHA
@@MarktheRude in the trenches on the Ukranian northern front they use field telephones because the russians have set up false cell towers on their side of the border
Hey what does DJI stand for?
@@NinjaofApathy I don't know, but it is a Chinese company. No wonder its signals are hackable. They design them that way.
I always wondered why in the dark i could see things better if i didnt look at them directly and kept them at the side of my sight! Thank you so much for providing that info
Thanks for upload and intel.
I think the whimsical nature of the narration indicates a particularly good brew has been consumed. Well done.
This is the content I love. Keep it up
There is one very significant advantage to night adaptation vs night vision devices. They won’t lock everyone down before the weekend if one comes up missing. I’m looking at you PFC Carter!
Holy hell this video is underrated. Excellent jokes and information
Amazing job. I love this so much. I've never commented that in 5 years on TH-cam
Outstanding! Thanks S2! Very valuable. Yes, Fight in the Shade.
Thank you for another fantastic educational video.
Natural night vision has a vital place in my inventory......because I'm low budget, great topic thanks for sharing on here!
Great scientific breakdown.👍
I appreciate your knowledge! ty
very cool stuff! thank you for you content
In ocean sailing, invest found occlusion to be the most helpful concept in night vision. Occlusion is, essentially, a darker mass blocking the night glow or lights on the horizon. Unli anchored boats & barges, ships running dark, buoys, pilings, even unlit headlands in primitive areas, occlude the natural background. It’s sort of like seeing in reverse or negative.
Can confirm that your peripherals are better at night. Was doing a 100 mile race (at night) and I was on one side of the trail, buddy was in the center, and our pacer was at my right. There was a Timber Rattler dead center of the trail. I saw it. My pacer saw it. My buddy didn't until my pacer physically pulled him to the side of the trail so he wouldn't step on it.
As soon as I saw there is a new video out I went straight to TH-cam and odyssey to watch the video! To boost your views on both platforms! and hopefully some day you will only have to post on Odysee in order to spread the word and get enough monetization from that platform! Keep up the good work S2!!!
Fascinating, thank you!!
I already know this will be an awesome video. I was messing around with my new Vortex Diamondback HD 10x50 binos while listening to this video. It would be great to see a vid about using binos at night
I just recently discovered that when looking up at the stars, I can see stars when I look off to one side that I can't see when look at them straight on. Now I know.
Haha, phenomenal. I was keen to this early on but, didn't find an explanation for a couple of decades. Something I discovered more recently, while traveling down through NE Nevada, was the night sky with very little to no artificial light and just before the moon popped up. To those who live where ambient light is inescapable, wait til you see the night sky without light pollution from the ground. Simply awe-inspiring.
From the middle of nowhere New Mexico, that air glow is no bs. Your situational awareness changes and your other senses also adapt a bit too.
This was great, I thought I was crazy when there were certain times where it was easier for me to put my PVS-14s up and go natural.
I’ve had a couple nights sitting under a tree waiting for coyotes with dead batteries and been surprised at how well I could see. I’ll try the peripheral vision trick next time. Thanks!
How can you tell which one is the coyote?
@@greggstrasser5791 coyotes trot then bounce when they move. They also are very vocal.
@@greggstrasser5791 I usually only try to get the coyotes that are hanging around for a few days. If the show up on the game camera and leave sign around my animals then they get taken out
What have you got against coyotes?
@@jeffhuntley2921
Cyote; I was making an illegal immigrant joke.
3 times I was about to comment something, but you brought up the thing while I was typing, so I'll just mind my business and enjoy the content.
As an amateur astronomer, I use binos almost every night. For night time, low light use you want about a 7mm exit pupil on the binocular. It will shove all of that extra light gathering power or the objective lens into your eyes. 7mm is the diameter of the shaft of light coming out of the eyepiece and is about as for as a young adult eye pupil will dilate in the dark. Easy to figure out from the specs of any binocular. A 7x50mm binocular has a 7.14mm exit pupil which is ideal (50mm divided by 7 power = 7.14mm). I have a pair of 2x54mm I don't really notice that much difference between the image brightness of those and my 11x70mm pair. The difference is the field of view and magnification.
I also find it helpful to close my observing eye when needing to use a light for charts or go into the lighted house. As soon as I step back into the darkness I have dark adaptation in that eye which allows me to navigate without running into the dog or tripping over things and immediately go back to observing without the wait...
I miss videos like this. I love all the global SA videos, but I like these informative video as discussing skill sets, general good-to-knows, and definitely the “boring stuff” videos
Regarding the eye-patch. The captain and the navigator wore eye-patches, and not the ordinary sailor. Navigation was done with a sextant, which required looking directly at the sun through a primitive telescope for prolonged periods of time. The patch was used to cover the non dominant eye for best accuracy. After measurement it was used to cover the dominant eye and help it rest. Unfortunately, cumulative eye fatigue from looking at the sun over the years often resulted in blindness. We take GPS for granted these days.
I love the infantry level explanations.
My dad taught me how to utilize my night vision when I was young, after you have adjusted to being in the dark, you can further it’s utilization by using your peripheral vision, looking out of the corners of your eyes.. you can master this quickly after being in pitch black for a while
Having used binoculars at night, the thing to keep in mind is you want as large an exit pupil as you can get. In the dark, it's not uncommon to have your pupil dilate to 5mm or more. This allows the maximum amount of light to be as large or larger than your pupil.
To calculate that, divide the magnification power into the diameter of the objective lens. Some common binocular specs and their exit pupil:
7x35 binos = 35/7 = 5mm
7x42 = 42/7 = 6mm
10x50 = 50/10 = 5mm
Did a training event last night in the Pacific NW. we rucked about 3/4 of a mile in dark, deep woods with pack and NO Light. Used natural night vision only. It was also raining like crazy.
I can tell you it was not easy. You have to get over the initial anxiety of ‘walking like a blind man down a hallway’ and learning to trust your feet and use your natural night vision.
It was also very tiring; focusing completely for so long really takes a toll on you physically and mentally. It can be done, though!
I was trained to shut one eye in Infantry training. Vit A supplementation was common on the Iron Curtain. All myths. I', shocked.
Great video
"... swinging a katana around in your room alone..." Wow, no need for personal attacks.
Im 61YO missing my right eye, I worked for over 35 years as a PMC but im done now. Last night at full dark I was cleaning up tools off my outside work bench, typically I have a headlamp but didnt at that moment, saw my dog out of my peripheral left side (the good eye) studying something turned out to be a 2.5ft fatty copperhead coiled up ready to strike. I whacked him with a short all steel shovel that just happened to be on my bench in a vise getting sharpened earlier. I was quit proud of my self haha. That snake after having its head severed continued to agressively bite and pump venom into a foam paint sponge for almost 25minutes!
I learned in aeromedical training during flight school that you have a night blind spot in the center of your focus. If you look directly at something at night and it is within that 10 degree circle, it will be invisible to you. Scan in a figure 8. I have tested this during my days as an Infantryman when I found it in a sniper manual and during my time as a UH-60 pilot and can say it works great. Smoking can reduce your night-adapted vision too, just a heads up. In my Infantry days, I had a platoon sergeant who fought in Mogadishu in 93 during all that craziness. He taught us to close one eye if a flare goes off. We would scan for advancing enemy with one eye and keep the other shut to preserve our night vision. I used NVG’s almost all the time in Iraq, but sometimes the lighting was better for using our naked eye. It sucked whenever a helicopter would fly by and start randomly popping flares when I felt good about being concealed in the shadows. I would get so angry at them. Years later after I became a pilot I learned that the system automatically pops flares if it detects a heat signature that might be a rocket or missile, even a fire could trigger it. They weren’t doing it on purpose like I began to think.
I love this channel
You can go to the accessibility section in your settings and change it to where it overlays a red filter on your screen. It’s supposed to be for colorblind people or something. I have it set up to where I can just triple tap my power button, and boom all red. Much better because there is nothing in the way of your screen
dude i had no idea so i checked tried it on mine. Should be a pinned comment.
great video
In the preliminary arts to the 72 Arts of Shaolin, there is a practice to give night vision. Essentially it was to stare at the moon every night for a period of time. its been years since i played in the dark, but i could always see where I was.
I haven't watched the video yet, but a nutrition note. Vitamin A as defined by the FDA includes beta carotene, which only converts to retinoic acid at a 10% rate. You MUST eat food containing retinoic acid. Carson cod liver oil is a fantastic source.
Closing one eye during brief light exposure helps a bit. I've done that while on night hikes when I need to use my phone briefly.
More needed content.
Cool topic! In my experience, the ambient light in cities provide quite a bit of light, but nvg’s are almost irreplaceable.
On memorial day I am thankful for the veterans who go into their MOS's gain experience be it in combat or not and then come back to the civilian world and spread that knowledge to the rest of America . That kind of education cannot be undervalued . Thank you
Can confirm the "eye patch" method.
Freaked me out when I tried it during COVID.
As a pilot I own a red flashlight I use to preflight and we were taught rods and cones and how to preserve our night vision in the first class
I can't wait for the great emp or cme... I might get to see the stars one last time in the darkness.
Natural night vision is very useful for things outside combat, using night vision equipment in the north during the winter when its dark most of the time and there is snow which reflects light is not necessary for most things. Things like moving stuff, setting up camp, doing maintenance etc. is much easier without a big unwieldy thing on your face all the time. Not to mention that you need to maintain your battery storage for actual combat.
The "eye patch" thing was probably used to correct or enhance sight of the crew (especially lookouts). It's a technique that's used even nowadays in some methods of eye post-trauma/surgery recovery and general vision enhancement/correction. It limits the brain's ability to see, and forces it to engage all the visual muscles and internal eye structures fully to get a better picture of the outside world, activating parts that were either weak or atrophied due to the regular conditions under which the subject operated (in a shit we would have very long periods inside in the dark, and outside in a very bright environment). The process is then repeated with the other eye (one switches eyes every 20-60min basically).
You can try that at home. It really gives good improvements, and it even corrects visual impairments if their cause isn't some hereditary defect or damaged eye part.
My buddy and I on bright nights we will just flip up our nods and walk by moonlight. Winter time it can get EXTREMELY bright off the snow even .
Nice video