The XX1080 image intensifier tube of the 1980s, some overview and demo and how to make it work

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I am talking about an image intensifier tube, out of the 1980’s, Philips XX1080. Night vision tube/scope. I bought it in the 1980’s. Old stock or discarded military stock, because of the black dots on the screen, when I tested it. So no longer usable for serious applications.

Aim of this tube is that it is (via a glass lens, standard optics) focused and receives “warm” objects/subjects; they are made visible on that kind of oscilloscope screen.

“Warm” in terms of their strayed out frequencies, say in the infrared range, because they are warm “subjects” or warm “objects”. Reason: the fact that they are living or (when not living) are warm by another internal or external cause.

Say in the 39 degrees Celsius temperature band or a temperature of a subject/object that differs from the background temperature, in such a way that it can give an indication via this image intensifier tube.

The human eye has a very limited bandwidth, talking about the frequency range where things are “visible”, by their nature itself: straying out or reflecting a frequency that the human eye can detect.

This tube thus can “help” in a certain way, by making objects and subjects visible to the human eye, say converting these not-visibile waves (not-visible for the human eye) visible. Say in this case on a kind of green (kind of oscilloscope) screen (luminescance), that can be studied via a magnifying glass. Thus: night vision of certain subjects/objects, that can/could be realized with this tube.

Though, on Ali, we can buy these things (night vision camera's, scopes, magnifier glasses) now (2025) for a kind of bargain. And often they are seen/showed in YT video's, by the way. Anyway: this is a technical explanation, at least: that is the aim....

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