Tele Vue offers Tactical Night Vision TNV/PVS-14 L3 Gen3 Un-Filmed White Phosphor night vision monoculars that the company has packaged with complimentary purpose designed Tele Vue accessories for astronomical observing. Night-vision devices (NVD) like the TNV/PVS-14 are optoelectronic devices that are becoming more popular for astronomical observations. The devices allow images to be viewed in levels of light approaching total darkness and are well known for their use in the military.
New 67mm Converter for 55mm Plössl Night Vision Enhancement
These Tele Vue accessories now include the ability to take advantage of the full-field capability of Tele Vue’s 55mm Plössl with a new night vision specific converter lens that extends its focal length to 67mm; thereby reducing the eyepiece’s apparent field of view from 50° to 40° to exactly match the field of view of the PVS-14 objective. That’s a 20% increase in true field-of-view seen with a simple screw-in accessory lens.
Equally important as seeing the entire field available from the 2″ eyepiece format, the larger exit pupil produced by the 67mm focal length provides more light to amplify. Additionally, the 55mm Plössl by itself requires more drawtube out travel than most eyepieces and the 67mm attachment moves the focus out by another 1” (25mm) from nominal. Tele Vue recommends the purchase of its 2” Extension Tube (X2C-0008) for your telescope when purchasing this attachment.
TNV/PVS-14 Night Vision System
The TNV/PVS-14 night vision system for astronomical observing offers an L3 sourced, un-filmed, white phosphor tube offering extreme low-light sensitivity, low-noise, and neutral “white” coloration for astronomy.
TNVC builds its PVS-14 using mil spec, Gen-3, image intensifying tubes by L3. The filmless white phosphor technology plus manual gain control make it the ideal unit for astronomical use. Rather than emerald green stars and scintillation, the white phosphor tube produces a more natural viewing experience. The gain control allows dialing in just the right amount of light amplification vs background noise for any given object brightness.
The TNV/PVS-14 features an “autogated” power supply to reduce blooming on bright objects and protect the image intensifier tube from damage. The “filmless” tube technology provides greater detail clarity and 15-20% more light amplification than standard thin-filmed green tubes. The objective focuses manually and the PVS-14 eyepiece contains its own diopter adjustment.
Tele Vue TNV/PVS-14 Night Vision System Kit
The Tele Vue kit includes the night vision monocular, adapters to attach the TNV/PVS-14 to a Tele Vue eyepiece, effectively making all Tele Vue compatible eyepieces “night vision” eyepieces, a Tele Vue Fonemate and adapter to fit allowing smart devices to be utilized with the TNV/PVS-14, and a 48mm filter adapter for the objective of the TNV/PVS-14 to scan the sky at 1x.
The TNV/PVS-14 can be used in a number of ways:
– Widefield visual: A stand-alone monocular will deliver 1x and a 40-degree true field of view. Adding the TNV-14 Eyepiece Adapter (TNV-1401) plus TNV-14 Filter Holder 48mm (TNV-1448) to the objective lens of the TNV/PVS-14 and threading on a 6nm hydrogen-alpha filter provides the ability for hand-held, sweeping views of the night sky.
– Widefield imaging: Adding a TNV-14 FoneMate Adapter to the monocular’s eyepiece and attach a FoneMate smart phone mount offers the ability to use a smartphone to capture images and video of the sky.
– Telescope use: Offering a 3-times effective aperture boost of a telescope the TNV-14 Eyepiece Adapter turns select Tele Vue eyepieces into night vision eyepieces. Simply thread the adapter onto the TNV/PVS-14’s objective, attach any compatible Tele Vue eyepiece to the other end of the adapter provides the ability of afocal night vision from low to high power. Naturally, the larger the exit pupil, the more photons there are for the tube to multiply. The is also the ability to image through the system with the TNV-14 FoneMate Adapter/ FoneMate Smart Phone to EP Adapter combo.
Due to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) the package is only available to US citizens. The adapter accessories that can be ordered separately from the night vision monocular are not covered by ITAR restrictions.
Visit Tele Vue’s website to learn more.
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