I remember seeing an early prototype of TNVC’s Artemis at the last SHOT Show. This has been the pet project for Augee Kim, one of the most staunch supporters for ball detent night vision systems. Unfortunately ball detent night vision goggles are either fragile or are an after thought and are executed poorly. Not so with their Artemis goggle.

Ball Detent Night Vision @TFB

• Friday Night Lights: DIY Build Your Own Quadtube – ANVIS10
• Friday Night Lights: Dual Tube Spotlight – RNVG, Sentinels, & ANVS
• FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: A Peek Through ANVIS10 PNVG (Panoramic Night Vision Goggles)

As I said earlier night vision goggles that use ball detent are fragile or not executed well. Most of them are ANVS goggles used for aviation purposes. There is only one ground goggle that uses a ball detent and that is a version of the GPNVG. Back when Adam Industries was making the Sentinel housing, they offered a ball detent adapter but this was like putting lipstick on a pig. It just bolted a ball detent on top of the bridge and suffered from too much height from the ball detent to the pods. While the ANVS6/9 are a great light weight goggle they are fragile and use ANVS objective lenses. Well now TNVC has made a ruggedized ball detent goggle that takes PVS-14 objectives. The Artemis is what you have been waiting for, if you are a fan of ball detent.

What makes ball detent a better mounting system? It is simple. Power is delivered through the mount. Once the goggle is flipped up, power is shut off from the goggle. While some goggles feature an auto-off feature, they do not always work. Augee Kim programs it out of PVS-31A when he uses them. He rather manually turn off the goggle than rely on the auto off.

Let’s take a closer look at the Artemis. It was designed from the ground up to be modular so you can have a ball detent or BNVS style version. See the thumb wheel? That is how you adjust the tilt angle when it is in ball detent configuration. The square button on the left side of the goggle is for the IR illuminator.

Here is the ball detent adapter next to the BNVS adapter.

Close up of the ball detent adapter.The black tab is to adjust the Artemis forwards and backwards.

Similar to an ANVS6/9 the pods are wired rather than using power rails like an RNVG.

If you want to use the Artemis with a dovetail mount, you can swap in the BNVS power adapter. It has an onboard battery compartment as well as a remote Fischer battery port.

The dovetail looks tall but it is similar to PVS-31 dovetail height.

The power button for the BNVS adapter is in the back. This allows you to more easily turn the Artemis on or off when the goggle is flipped up on your helmet.

The Artemis will be released in a couple months. For more information check out TNVC website.