Night vision scope?

[jonathan]

I know it's not particularly to do with astronomy, but when I'm out in the garden I sometimes look at the wildlife too, and it would be nice to have a good night vision monocular so that I can see that hedgehog snuffling around the bird feeder or the owl hooting in the tree, without having to resort to shining a torch in their faces and ruining my night vision (I'm aware that a monocular may do this anyway though depending on the type).

Has anyone experience of these, what's good and what's not? I don't want to go mad money-wise, just something that has a little magnification and presents a nice easy image at the eyepiece. Not expecting anything like they have on Springwatch, but as close as possible without breaking the bank.

[ronin]

Do you mean night vision as in low light or as in infra red detection (passive)?

Luna make a 3x monocular at about £190.

It has an IR illuminator so I assume it is not using the IR off of whatever is being looked at.

Model: Luna Optics LN-SX3

[jonathan]

That sounds like the sort of thing. I have looked before but there are so many it's difficult to know what's good, and finding a subjective review is hard (pro websites tend to only look at the very expensive models).

[E621Keith]

Doesn't night vision scope display the image in green? Wouldn't that damage your dark adaptation?

[jonathan]

Yes Keith I'm aware of this, but if the observing is off for the night or I'm looking at the moon it won't matter.