| many different night vision devices to choose from, | | | | strain. Looking through goggles allows your eyes to |
| why would one choose to use night vision goggles as | | | | adjust to the green color based vision without having |
| opposed to a monocular or some other type of scope | | | | to deal with the darkness of night poking in from your |
| device? | | | | other eye. This can easily cause a headache, which |
| There are several reasons. The first, and most not so | | | | you obviously don’t want when operating a |
| obvious, is the that the army has traditionally trained | | | | vehicle or plane on an important mission. It is one thing |
| many of their soldiers to use the night vision goggle. | | | | to operate a vehicle or plane and another to |
| With a head or helmet mount, the goggle allows for a | | | | concentrate on your aim through a scope, where you |
| hand-free operation, giving the soldier the ability to use | | | | typically close one eye to get a better view of the |
| a gun, operate a tank or vehicle, or fly a plane or | | | | target. |
| helicopter while wearing the goggles. | | | | The view through NVDs can be a lot like looking down |
| The second reason, and the stronger of the two, is | | | | a tunnel. Your normal field of view is almost 190 |
| eye-strain. Looking through goggles is easier on the | | | | degrees — but that is cut down to 40 degrees |
| eyes and produces less eye strain than looking | | | | with NVDs. That side -- or peripheral -- vision |
| through a monocular or scope type set up. If you are | | | | you’re accustomed to, and from which you |
| operating a tank, armoured vehicle, doing a ground | | | | often see dangers, is just not there. To adjust for that |
| survey, performing a tactical area search and rescue, | | | | you must constantly turn your head to scan for the |
| or flying a plane or helicopter the night vision goggle | | | | dangers on either side of you that you can’t |
| (aviator night vision - another article coming soon...!) | | | | see in your narrow field of view. Not the greatest in |
| would be the correct choice based on the minimal eye | | | | ground battle situations, but what can you do? |