First Generation Night Vision Scopes

First generation night vision scopes don't have anything to do with ancestry or immigration—it's just a name the scope experts gave to scopes that amplify the ambient light between 150 and 400 times. You can see the image perfectly in the centre of the eyepiece, but out around the edges things get a little fuzzy. First generation models have a shorter viewing range (typically half that of 2nd generation models), although they can still manage 100 yards in low light if you use an infrared illuminator. As the technology used is less sophisticated, first generation scopes are likely to cost less than their second generation relatives.