Dropped $150 on a night vision monocular for 'ghost hunting' and now I'm questioning everything

I spent $150 on a Gen 1 night vision monocular from a surplus store last summer to go look for ghosts with my buddy at an old abandoned mill. Turns out all it did was make every shadow look like a person, and we spent 4 hours jumping at raccoons and bats. Has anyone else bought gear for a conspiracy or paranormal hobby and realized it just made things more confusing?

2 comments

2 Comments

david_adams14d ago

That 'Gen 1' part is actually the giveaway here. Gen 1 night vision uses an older tube that amplifies light but adds a lot of grain and bad contrast, so yeah, every raccoon looks like a ghost. If you ever try it again, Gen 2 or Gen 3 gear has way better gain control and won't make every bat look like a floating human. But even then, the human brain is wired to see faces in random shapes, so you're probably still gonna freak yourself out. I learned this the hard way after spending $200 on a thermal camera that just showed me where the warm raccoons were hiding in my attic.

rivera.keith14d ago

And the thing nobody tells you about thermal is once you start seeing heat signatures everywhere you can't unsee it. I borrowed a buddies thermal scanner to check for drafts around my house and ended up spending two hours watching the stray cats that live under the neighbors porch. The raccoon thing is real too. I got one on my security cam one night and that thing looked like it was walking on two legs with its arms out. Had me checking the locks twice before I realized it was just a fat raccoon waddling.