Mystery Optics

[Firemission1343]

Hello, Its my first post here, but have been a long time lurker so please treat me well, I know how you guys are lol.

Figured I would make my first post something maybe interesting. I been always been interested in weird stuff that I find sometimes in some surplus stores that I visit every now and then. I find a lot of weird old things that someone has clearly spent a lot of money on. Some of my favorites are the optics and electronics that I find sometimes so I figured I would make a thread on "Mystery Optics" that no one has little to no information on. So please share anything that is unknown to you, spooky or just simply weird (that your willing to share).

I'll share mine first. I've got this thing that I'm almost 100% sure is a some crazy laser rangefinder or IR thingumabob taken straight off tank or something. I never been able to 100% figure out the numbers other than Raytheon being is it's most likely manufacturer. I thought it was pretty neat though. It's some seriously heavy glass. There is a prism(s) involved, antireflection coatings or filter and a laser diode too, but was scared I might blind myself should I try to power it own(if it even works). The Surplus guy I bought it from said he had like ten more sitting somewhere with different optoelectric stuff too.

What other weird optics that you guys have your trigger happy hands on?

 

[tangloppen]

Interesting topic. Always fun trying to figure out intended use for unknown stuff (a classic going through specialty tools).
Do you have more/better pictures of this lightsaberscopethingy?

 

[ken226]

I could be mistaken but it looks like a Raytheon optical beam splitter. I believe they were used on the M1 Abrams to provide the gun sight, IR and other image data for the tanks various sighting displays.

The light is gathered by the objective, then into a prism that splits it into various parts of the spectrum. Different systems in the tank use different outputs from it.

 

[Firemission1343]

I could be mistaken but it looks like a Raytheon optical beam splitter. I believe they were used on the M1 Abrams to provide the gun sight, IR and other image data for the tanks various sighting displays.

Yeah, I remember there being a beam splitter in some of the loose part i got for it. I figured it was for something like that but I did not know it was for a actual tank. Your idea of what it is is more then likely correct.

Do you have more/better pictures of this lightsaberscopethingy?

Yeah, no problem, I'll takes some more of photos when I get the chance.