Own the Night

[Music] throughout the history of warfare any army that has been able to assert their dominion over the night time has had a significant advantage over an adversary that is not in the world of boring manuals and doctrine period of darkness or pod refers to what normal people might call night time but there's actually much more to it than that so let's get right into it the first thing to do is actually define what the night time specifically what exact moment does the daytime transition into the night time this is actually a much more complicated thought than one might imagine for instance one might think that sunrise is the most important metric that one might want to know when conducting operations at night but this is not the case think about it usually by the time the sun itself officially rises the sky has been lit up for a long time providing enough light by which to see with the unaided eye really what we are interested in is what we call twilight twilight is the point before sunrise in which the sun is still below the horizon but in which the sky starts lighting up the sun doesn't just magically spring up over the horizon within a few seconds the event that we know as sunri but in which the sky starts lighting up the sun doesn't just magically spring up over the horizon within a few seconds the event that we know as sunrise actually takes a long time sometimes a couple of hours depending what latitude you're at as such there are actually a few different twilights the very first twilight is what we call astronomical twilight as one might expect this time of day is of most interest to astronomers as it is the point in which there is absolutely no color in the sky the night is still dark the sky has no indications of the sun coming up whatsoever this makes it a great time for astrophotography such as taking pictures of star trails or something like that also if you've ever heard the phrase the night is darkest just before dawn this period of time is exactly what that saying is referring to up next just a few minutes after astronomical twilight we arrive at nautical twilight and this is the important one this is the point in time where we get the very first inklings of the sun coming up the sky starts to brighten just the tiniest little bit which is helpful for mariners in the days of sailing ships navigators had to rely on celestial navigation to know wh ghten just the tiniest little bit which is helpful for mariners in the days of sailing ships navigators had to rely on celestial navigation to know where they were and at this point in time the horizon is just beginning to be visible but the stars in the sky are still very bright this makes it very easy to use an instrument like a sex tint to determine one's position because both the stars and the horizon are clearly visible thus this period of time is called nautical twilight and lastly we have what's called civil twilight this is traditionally what we think of when we see the sun coming up if you've been working all night long and you look up and realize that the sun is coming up chances are you'll notice this during civil twilight civil twilight is depending on season and latitude usually the shortest lasting period of twilight because the sun tends to come up very shortly after so when we're planning operations that will require darkness most militaries around the world use nautical twilight as the benchmark and schedule their operations around what we call e-e-n-t and b-m-n-t which stands for the end of evening nautical twilight and the beginning of morning nautical twilight i rations around what we call e-e-n-t and b-m-n-t which stands for the end of evening nautical twilight and the beginning of morning nautical twilight in other words the point in time when the sun finishes setting and the point in time when it starts coming back up again this will enable one to have as much of a darkness window as possible in which to work and during the summer time when the days are long and the nights are short this window of time becomes very important as you will have fewer hours of darkness in which to complete your mission something else to consider when planning to conduct operations at night time is the lunar illumination level or in other words how bright the moon is everyone is familiar with how the moon goes through phases but knowing their precise percentage of illumination or illume as it's called is absolutely mandatory especially for those using night vision devices now there are many different sources for getting illumination data but the best source has been in the past the us naval observatory these guys maintain pretty much all celestial navigation products for the world so they're a really good source for this sort of stuff however due to covid so ys maintain pretty much all celestial navigation products for the world so they're a really good source for this sort of stuff however due to covid somehow most of their website has been down for the better part of two years now so we have to use other sources for this data until if and when the united states naval observatory fixes their website like i said there are dozens of different sources for illumination data but a reliable source that's been around for years is timeanddate.com the link of which is below this website is far from the best but it's reliable so if you're watching this video years into the future chances are this website will still be around but if it's not you can always just search online for moon illumination data for your location and you'll be able to find it pretty easily so once you've set your location on the website you can see what percentage of illumination the moon will be at when it rises at night now obviously the moon's illumination will change slightly over the course of the night but it won't deviate enough to matter that much for what we're using it for so often times the illumination data for the night is listed as one percentage number and t ate enough to matter that much for what we're using it for so often times the illumination data for the night is listed as one percentage number and the way to read that number is the higher the percentage the brighter the moon 100 would be a full moon and zero percent would be a new moon this is very very important to know if you're using night vision devices even the best night vision tubes need some illumination to work so you might find that you struggle to see anything on a dark zero percent moonless night and on the other hand if you're conducting operations under a full moon you might not need any night vision at all so there's a balance between the two extremes if you are say a military unit conducting operations in a combat zone you'll be increasing your risk if you conduct an operation during zero illume because you won't be able to see much which increases their chances of an accident or flying into a mountain but on the other hand if you conduct an operation under a full moon with a high illumination level you won't be able to use the darkness to your advantage as much because it will be bright enough for you to be seen by everyone who doesn't have a night vision device e to use the darkness to your advantage as much because it will be bright enough for you to be seen by everyone who doesn't have a night vision device nothing is quite so unnerving as walking around under nods and seeing someone without nods see you and point at you because you thought you were covered by darkness but you really weren't so that's why all of this data is so important night vision devices are a massive force multiplier as they allow us to see things in environments where others cannot however this technology isn't as effective as it could be and might actually be more of a liability than an asset in certain situations if you don't take into account seemingly unimportant data like twilight and illumination data knowing the precise moments when you will be visible to an adversarial force is critical for not just operating during the night but truly being able to own the night and fight in the shade [Music] [Music] you