Everyone post your tips, tricks, and knowledge about how to best see in the dark, and how to best utilise your scotopic vision.This includes discussion of lighting and how to best use it, and IR/thermal/nacht vision options.I'll start:Your scotopic (night) vision takes about 20mins to reach highly effective performance, and up to an hour to reach peak performance - so it's important that you preserve it!Facts about your vision that you can use to your advantage:>your eye has two main types of photoreceptors: cones and rods.>cones are sensitive to colour and most of your fine detail relies on them, they are NOT sensitive to contrast or movement>rods are sensitive to contrast and very sensitive to movement, they see ONLY contrast: dark vs. light and never in fine focus.>cones are grouped in the centre of your retina, directly behind your pupil and lens>rods are non-existent in the centre of your retina, but are spread around the outside, off-axis from your cornea, making survival possible because it is your peripheral vision that you rely on for reflex if anything suddenly moves in on you>in scotopic vision your cones fail and you rely entirely on your rods, this is why in low light everything looks grey or black & white>this also means in the dark anything you try to stare directly at (if you think something is lurking out there in the moonlight) you won't be able to see, you're basically blind to anything you stare at>look away slightly, using your peripheral (rod) vision and even though you couldn't read a chart you will get more information and immediately identify if something is movingcont'd
>>2853038Some tips about lighting:>narrow spectrum lighting helps preserve your night vision compared to white or wideband light sources, red is quite popular but it has some drawbacks (good contrast, everything in the woods looks gray or black, red light is visible from much further away than higher frequencies)>green is good to maximise your visibility because we're most sensitive to it, not visible from as far away>blue makes blood look inky black which helps with tracking game, scatters considerably in foliage, fog, an atmosphere and least visible from far away; added bonus that it penetrates water better than other colours if you need to see through a water surface.>t. majored in lighting design, optics, and photometry
I have wondered because putting black paint beneath your eye reduces glare directly into the eye thus improving vision if putting white paint under the eye would improve it? Then I remember I am toilet bowl white so probably not. Blue eyes help. Other than that from memory I think you are correct I do recall direct vision being limited in the dark.
>>2853040the tried and trusted combination for clearest vision on a sunny day is dark pain under the eyes and a visor over them.still not typically as good as polarized sunglasses or goggles with narrow apertures
>>2853041Does it work inversely? If a dark skinned person put white under the eyes would it actually improve night vision?
>>2853038I use a headlamp
>>2853049reflecting light into your cornea will not help you see better
Cool thread and hope it grows. Also going to post a stupid comment in honor of internet shit posting lore bumping“I like putting my rod in between your moms cones”
Oh also, are you saying if I don’t want to be detected to use green light rather than red light? Some of my flashlights have both options but I’m not a fan of green for whatever reason
>>2853038If the moon is out and you are still and observing, often times all you really need is a big ass lens. Sit out in a meadow with a full moon and some 8x40 nocs and you will be amazed at what just those larger lenses can pick up.
>>2853038Really just this plus a headlamp like the princeton tec sync where the red light is a distinct position with off on either side, or one of the USGI angle flashlights with filters. The old school bulb is pretty nice and not too harsh on the eyes and the red is nice for not nuking your eyes.
>>2853149technically yes, the problem is you can function with a much lower power green light than red light because you are naturally much more sensitive to green, the problem is green flashlights are often overpowered and you can't dim them enough to benefit from them and keep your night vision at the same time. when they're too bright people are gonna see you from far away no matter what. so yeah, if you can dim it down to almost useless you'll find in the pitch dark it's very effective. for example, the little green LED on my mac charger I don't even notice at night when I shut the lights off, but after getting a few hours of shuteye when I wake up it's lighting up my entire bedroom. and that's just a weakass green light the size of a pinhead>>2853155that sounds rad, I've never used my monoc at night but I should really try>>2853161yeah red is the overall best bet unless you're hiding from someone
Most recent camping trip went on a night hike first time ever, with only a single red LED keyring torch as a backup in case I got stuck. Barely needed it, the star light was enough to see the trail. Apart from walking through one spider web it was kino af trudging through the wild in darkness. Got up to a vantage point/lookout, beautiful view of the surrounds and the constellations. Will do again.
>>2853193that's the way to do it. I like the convenience of a headlamp for hiking or urbex or something but having this white or red spotlight right over your eyes is also a pain in the ass. a little hand held is so much easier to control and you can muffle the light however you like to use as little or as much as necessary, without the beam always being right in front of your face
good thread, i hope it survives a week or more. too bad i don't have anything to contribute. i'm a knife/flashlight guy for 10+ years and i've only used white light. now you're making me scroll through aliexpress again for something i don't think i need...
>>2853282buy the weakest handheld green LED you can find. use you regular light as needed, and have the little green light handy for when you're mostly coping under skylight but need a teeny bit of reinforcement, because you can use a very dim single colour light to great effect without bouncing your pupils back to photopic mode
>>2853038interesting thread, i was just reading about something similar how living in civilization theres so much light pollution that our eyes never get to fully switch from cones to rods even at night, and how this is presumeably bad for our health..
>>2853382exposure to electric light, especially fluorescent and LEDs, is known to be a major contributor to sleep disorders. any light with lots of blue effects our circadian rhythms.
these are my night vision toys>Bushnell Equinox z2 IR monocular scope/camera>FLIR Scout TK thermal scope/camera>Supercheap Kmart brand video camera with IR night mode>external IR lamp because the camera's own lamp is weak and only really useful indoors
>>2853332wouldnt a normal red light work best as is common with many headlamps for exactly this reason?
>>2853576the issue is the ability to dim the light, most headlamps I find don't dim enough. with a handheld light you can cover or obscure the beam with your hand. once you have adjusted full night vision you don't need 100 lumens strapped to your noggin
Just live in the desert. For up to the 5 nights surrounding the full moon in desert backcountry you can walk freely without any light assistance. Some tight shaded canyons can be dark but open areas are light enough to even have color. Pic is not a sunrise but a moonrise of the full moon, and just a regular pic not a longer exposure or anything.
>>2854098yeah in places where you have full horizon it never gets dark for long. even with no visible moon it's only proper night for a short period before the easter horizon starts to get light again. And once your eyes are adjusted even night skylight can help you at least avoid obstacles
ßump
>>2854098>gets stabbed by a cactus
>>2855798reminds me of a funny story>finish exploring in saguaro national park>driving away>feel something on my pant leg>brush my hand past it>tennis ball size cholla now stuck on my hand>still driving down road, one handed now>trying to shake it off out the window, not working>yelling at my friend to get this thing the fuck off me while still trying to pay attention to the road>cholla now stuck to friends handgood times
>>2853039huh i thought red light was less visible from far away, like anecdotally i could swear ive observed this first hand.
I have pale blue eyes so it's easy to see in the dark. Conversely it's not great in sunny weather and takes me as few days of bright sun to stop squinting.This is white person stuff I'm talking about, if you know you know. Fuck the cowardice of the scientific community not studying these things but basically if you have brown eyes you can see better in bright weather and if you have blue eyes you can see better in the dark. I know this because seeing in the dark is easy through these pale blue eyes.
>>2855931>pant legThis part made me laugh. My pant leg had [indecipherable foreign word] stuck to it. Pants don't have legs they stop at your upper thigh because they are underwear. I bet you also wear a hat while sitting indoors don't you? I should travel more, the world is full of things to smile at.
PVS14 and a Crye NightCap.
>>2855950nah red light doesn't scatter or dissipate as quickly in the atmosphere or fog as shorter wavelength light, this is why things like stop lights and railroad crossing indicators etc are red.you may have noticed other lights being more visible but remember, it's all about luminosity. a more powerful green light will easily outshine and appear brighter than a red light, but if all things are equal the red light is the last one you will still see as it fades into the distance.
I have visual snow syndrome. My vision is dog shit in the dark. Feels bad man.
>>2856000what's the medical advice for dealing with this? this syndrome is new to me
>>2853038Keep a patch over one eye, so that when darkness falls, you have an eye already adapted to lowlight conditions.
>>2857280good catch actually, like the pirates did.although for me my depth perception is garbo to begin with and that would just handicap me. I'd be tripping all over the place
