My Russian Night Vision is bust

[Rumrace]

I have a 25 year old Russian night vision monocular it’s amazing for night moves checking out anchorages.
There is a pump handle on the side you pump 5-8 times and you got night vision in green for about 45 seconds.
I’m betting I’m not getting parts from Russia any day soon.
I checked the power out on the generator, seems to work fine. The screen looks blurred with oil.
Does anyone have a clue how to restore my monocular to its previous glorious condition ?

[GordMay]

The STARGATE Night Vision Monocular [Russian Gen. 1] does not require batteries to power it’s image tube. Instead, it uses a patented lever-activated power supply.

The lever activates a piezoelectric charge generator, that provides the high voltage required to bias the image tube.

This voltage bleeds-off very slowly and the image is intensified for as long as you continue to depress the lever. After several minutes, you may notice that the brightness of the image has decreased.

To restore it, simply release the lever, and squeeze it back down, ONCE!

Do not “pump” the lever as if you are charging a battery, you get nothing for your effort, and the Newcon will deactivate itself for some time.

On a starless, cloudy night, without much ambient IR light, you may need to use the IR Illuminator, which does require a single CR123 battery.

[Rumrace]

Wow thanks. I think you have identified my antique correctly. I’ll try that procedure and learn how to post a photo of it.
Thank you again

[Franziska]

Looks like they still sell something similar (in case yours is really broken, fixing it surely is the preferred solution.):
https://www.amazon.com/NEWCON-OPTIK-.../dp/B00006I5IS