Sionyx Aurora Sport, Walking, Infrared Illumination both Helmet and Weapon Mounted, Live Fire

Before, when I tested the Sionyx Aurora Sport with an eyecup, it may have given me a tactical advantage since it stopped the light from spilling on my face from the screen, but it made me very uncomfortable and provided no peripheral vision. In the live fire portion, I was using the Aurora over the right eye, an unassisted left eye and a large suppressor which meant the unassisted eye couldn't see anything at that light level and the target was blocked by the suppressor in my assisted eye - accuracy was so so. The weapon mounted Streamlight was not sighted in, but hip fire is much easier than I suspected. It takes time to get use to the helmet, the optic and night shooting so it just means more training. (Updated: I believe unless you wear a stereo night vision device(s), you should use the NV on your non-dominant eye especially if your weapon uses tritium sights. You will see the sights in your dominant eye and the other eye will see the target completing the sight picture. There also seems to be something comforting about not blocking your dominant eye even if you can't see anything with your naked eye.) All in all, the Aurora is a great night vision device and when extreme darkness overtakes the Sport, an IR illuminator solves that problem. The helmet takes a decent amount of setup and the latency of the camera takes time to adapt to when walking, but for $400, there is nothing close. Helmet, lights, mounts, sights and batteries - I have between $1500 and $2000 invested. 940nm infrared light is harder to detect (red glow from the illuminator is less), but has less power per lumen than a 850nm light About 3 clicks of zoom on the Aurora matches my unassisted eye (this is a gripe about the Aurora - some setting like zoom and gain are not persistent across reboots) Weapon mounting the Aurora is great for hunting varmints, but it is not a great for home defense. Helmet mounting the Aurora is better tactically, but the helmet is not comfortable, walking with the device takes getting used to, the device is digital so you have to turn it on and take other steps such donning the helmet and flipping down the mount - in other words, it's involved and can't be done in less than 15 or 20 seconds Infrared lights and laser are expensive compared to other tactical lights. I suggest you buy cheap IR illuminators for varmint guns and expensive ones for self defense I have used military grade ANVIS night vision and it is superior because they are analog and have no lag or latency and need less infrared illumination, but a single PVS-14 costs north of $2500. With the correct settings and training you can get used to the small amount of lag in the Aurora when walking and the field of view is superior in the digital realm I tested the NightFox gear and it was not usable IMO and I tried to get a Sightmark Ghost Hunter in 1x (you need to have a 1x capable device because you cannot walk with 4x or 5x magnification on a helmet) which is made with Russian Gen 1 tubes, but they are no longer being sold. I have used those tubes in the past and the field of view the size of a quarter FAST Dovetail Mount for Aurora - https://www.rockeybrass.com/FAST-Moun... 940nm Infrared Light - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07... Light mount for helmet - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07... Rear USB Gear Pouch - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07... USB Battery (fits pouch exactly) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08... Helmet - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01... Helmet padding - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01... Replacement Helmet Padding - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01... Metal helmet mount - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07... Night Vision Camera - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07... Weapon Mounted Infrared Light - Streamlight TLR-VIR II - https://www.opticsplanet.com/streamli... Votex 3x Prism Sight - https://vortexoptics.com/vortex-spitf... Sionyx Aurora Picatinny Mount - https://farrow.tech/