Went to a star party for a few days (had to cut it short due to family emergencies). Someone there had a night vision unit. Unfortunately I didn't get many looks and it didn't seem to be in focus completely when I did look. Didn't appear to be quite as good as my unit from what I could tell. But can't really compare given I didn't have mine with me. My friend said he thought my unit was probably better, but still said it worked well.
If that person is on here, I suggest not pushing NV on people.
He only brought his NV unit, so he was using it in other people's scopes. But he was pushing people to use it who were doing visual. And it made them uncomfortable and it ruined their night vision (with night vision...that's funny). I figure that's because he didn't bring a scope. Had I brought my full amount of scopes I would have just let him use my 10 inch dob...but I did a minimal setup this time.
Was a bit disappointing to not get a good sense of another unit, since I've only looked through mine. And unfortunately my trip was cut short. I used my 25x100 binos most of the time. That worked out pretty well, but I only got one night and the transparency wasn't great most of the time.
I'm sometimes quite hesitant to use NV in club member's scopes. And I always ask if they want to try it. I usually wait until the majority of newbies have left since I feel it's awkward to share NV with them. They just bought a 400-500 dollar scope. Then they see this crazy stuff and ask how much it costs. 5K+ isn't exactly realistic for people at this level of the hobby. But the experienced observers who come are OK to show it to. However, I think they may have a bit of a bad taste now so I may keep my NV to myself a bit more.
Quite bummed about having to leave early. It was so nice to unplug from phones/work/personal issues/etc. for a few days. And it was nice to have good conversations with some of the older attendees at lunch/dinner.
I did my first real outreach also (outside of club events). I setup my solar scopes and showed a lot of people sun spots. We also had an HA setup and a Quark zoomed in on another scope. Showed that to a good amount of new folks. I have social anxiety disorder and a few other anxiety issues. But the new medicine seems to be helping with that (unless the situation is stronger in nature). TMI I realize. But I feel like focusing on hobbies and connecting with real people is helpful. I've not been on here much lately, but this used to be my primary source of connection for quite some time. But face to face much more impactful.
Sorry for the long post. I still would like to compare units sometime with a better situation.