Spent $150 on a night vision monocular for sky watching and it totally paid off

I got tired of seeing weird lights over my backyard in Tucson and never being able to tell what they were. So I dropped $150 on a basic digital night vision monocular from Amazon. Last Tuesday I spotted a cluster of orange orbs drifting south at 11pm and finally got a clear look at them through the lens. Turned out they were just drones from the air force base, but at least I know for sure now. Anyone else invest in gear to confirm what you're seeing?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_ward1mo ago

Got a buddy who bought a similar cheap night vision scope for the same reason. He lives out near the training range in Nevada. Thought he was seeing UFOs for months, turned out it was just a weird reflection off a cell tower his brain kept misinterpreting. Made him feel a lot better though.

leehall1mo ago

Man, I feel that. It's so easy for your brain to just fill in the blanks when you're looking at something fuzzy through cheap glass, especially out in the middle of nowhere where you're already kind of on edge. I had a similar thing happen once where I was convinced I saw something moving in the woods behind my house. Turns out it was just a piece of a plastic bag caught on a branch, but for a solid ten minutes my heart was pounding. It's almost a relief when you figure out it's something boring, you know? Way better than having to actually worry about aliens or weird military stuff happening right outside your door.

leehall1mo ago

Yeah but here's something nobody ever brings up with those cheap night vision scopes - they put out a faint infrared light that bounces off stuff you can't normally see. If your buddy was looking at a cell tower, that IR could be hitting dust particles or bugs that are invisible to the naked eye and making it look like something's moving around down there. Plus those scopes have terrible focus so your brain is basically guessing what you're looking at half the time. The fact that he convinced himself it was reflections instead of aliens probably saved him a lot of sleepless nights.