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I have some experience with night vision light amplification devices.  We
had a dark tunnel at Frankford Arsenal (Phila, PA) to evaluate them. The 1st
generation devices such as the Starlight Scope lacked resolution but did
indeed provide some enhanced night vision capability. I wasn't favorably
impressed.  The latest devices are quite spectacular; pilots actually use
them for night flying.

These devices have a array photosensitive cells that emit electrons in
response to impinging photons.  A high voltage field accelerates the freed
electrons onto a phosphorescent screen where the image appears.

An amateur astronomer friend, who works with night vision technology, signed
out a third generation night scope to observe a comet.  Looking through the
scope, the comet tail extended accross the sky and many higher magnitude
stars were visible.  If I recall properly, the brighter stars were blured
and didn't appear as point sources.

You might be able to conduct night sights because the horizon will be
visible if the device is placed in its direct optical path. The image will
be somewhat granular and there will also be some bright speckles. So you
would need to ignore these distractions to estimate where your star is.

---  CHAS

   

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