[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Xrundel

Where those ideas about "periscope is hardly usable at night" come from? If you think about it - ALL THE TELESCOPES HAVE TO BE TROWN AWAY because it's a night time.

Before you lecture people it helps to get all the facts. For whatever reason, the fact is that attack periscopes were indeed not very good for night use, which is why they had the observation periscopes with larger heads.

The term attack periscope is applied to a periscope with a minimum diameter of head at the sacrifice of light transmission and diameter of exit pupil.

http://www.maritime.org/fleetsub/pscope/chap1.htm#1A
Section 1A4: Useful Definitions.

Germans had BEST OPTICS during 20th century period. They optics were anti-light reflection coated way before anyone would even consider it.

And the Germans also had separate observation and attack periscopes, because the attack 'scope was made as small as possible to reduce the chance of it's being seen in the daytime, and it was pretty much blind at night.

German naval artillery was feared by every British ship crew. Because of two factors. Krupp steel precision made guns, unmatched by anyone in the world. And Karl-Zeiss optical range finders. Also unmatched by anyone in the world. That's why German battleship was able to open EFFECTIVE fire BEFORE British were able to answer with more or less acceptable presicion. That's how HMS Hood was sunk by Bismark in the first salvo.

1) Battleship rangefinders have stereoscopic prisms that are more than 13 meters apart. This is not at all comparable to the system used in submarine periscopes.

2) Bismarck opened effective fire earlier because the British mistook Prinz Eugen for Bismarck, and then tried to close the range rather than return fire.

3) If it was because of the superior rangefinders, then why several days later were King George V and Rodney devastatingly effective, while Bismarck didn't score a single hit?

I've learn all of this from my teachers in Naval academy because my specialty was ship's firepower.

I'll be glad to have that discussion with you in depth, because the design of warships and their armament is a favorite field of study.

Last thing. During night observations (astronomical or military etc.) it is very important to keep eyes dark adaptation. That's why all astronomical flashlights have red filter on. That's why any illuminated eyepiece have RED illumination inside of it. Not Green. Green kills dark adaptation, you have to spend another 15-30 minutes to get adapted to darkness again (eye's pupil opens as wide as possible).
Now you probably know why sub have red interior light at night, not the strobes or laser show like in night clubs?

It's my understanding that the eyepieces of submarine periscopes weren't illuminated at all. The lines were treated with a phosphorescent substance to make them glow in the dark, and to the best of my knowledge that phosphorescence was green. You could be right, but around here we consider it rude to laugh at people and lecture them like they were children. We're all working together to make the game as realistic as possible, and talking down to people won't make them listen.