A view through the Mark III Free Gun Reflector Sight, first produced in 1943, used on British army guns, naval guns, and as a pilot sight and a defensive gun sight on aircraft. The reticle image in this sight is produced by an optical collimator bounced off a beam splitter. The dot remains on the target even though the viewer's head is moved side to side
A reflector sight or reflex sight is an optical sight that allows the user to look through a partially reflecting glass element and see an illuminated projection of an aiming point or some other image superimposed on the field of view.[1][2] These sights work on the simple optical principle that anything at the focus of a lens or curved mirror (such as an illuminated reticle) will appear to be sitting in front of the viewer at infinity. Reflector sights employ some form of "reflector" to allow the viewer to see the infinity image and the field of view at the same time, either by bouncing the image created by lens off a slanted glass plate, or by using a mostly clear curved glass reflector that images the reticle while the viewer looks through the reflector. Since the reticle is at infinity it stays in alignment with the device to which the sight is attached regardless of the viewer's eye position, removing most of the parallax and other sighting errors found in simple sighting devices.
Since their invention in 1900, reflector sights have come to be used as gun sights on various weapons. They were used on fighter aircraft, in a limited capacity in World War I, widely used in World War II, and still used as the base component in many types of modern head-up displays. They have been used in other types of (usually large) weapons as well, such as anti-aircraft gun sights, anti-tank gun sights, and any other role where the operator had to engage fast moving targets over a wide field of view, and the sight itself could be supplied with sufficient electrical power to function. There was some limited use of the sight on small arms after World War II, but the sight came into widespread use during the late 1970s with the invention of the red dot sight. This sight uses a red light-emitting diode (LED) as its illumination source, making a durable, dependable sight with an extremely long illumination run time.
Other applications of reflector sights include sights on surveying equipment, optical telescope pointing aids, and camera viewfinders.
^"Elementary Optics and Application to Fire Control Instruments". Headquarters, Department of the Army. 13 April 1977. Retrieved 13 April 2018 – via Google Books.
^Company, McGraw-Hill Book (13 April 2018). McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of science and technology. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780079136657. Retrieved 13 April 2018 – via Google Books.
A reflectorsight or reflex sight is an optical sight that allows the user to look through a partially reflecting glass element and see an illuminated...
A red dot sight is a common classification for a non-magnifying reflector (or reflex) sight that provides an illuminated red dot to the user as a point...
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A gyro gunsight (G.G.S.) is a modification of the non-magnifying reflectorsight in which target lead (the amount of aim-off in front of a moving target)...
a designated celestial object. Glossary of military abbreviations Reflectorsight Elementary optics and application to fire control instruments By United...
distinctly different to optical sights such as telescopic sights, reflector (reflex) sights, holographic sights, and laser sights, which make use of optical...
search for the target on the ground. Later Nordens were equipped with a reflectorsight to aid in this step. Once the target was located the computer was clutched...
replaced the older wire crosshairs with a modern reflectorsight that was easy to see at night. The sight could be rotated manually to view objects well...
[citation needed] Non-magnifying reflector or "reflex" sights can be theoretically "parallax free." But since these sights use parallel collimated light...
sight, based on a design by Helsingborg engineer John Arne Ingemund Ekstrand. This is the first light emitting diode (LED) "red dot" reflectorsight manufactured...
acquired the Photonics division of Intevac. Unlike reflectorsights, the holographic weapon sight does not use a reflected reticle system. Instead, a...
allows the viewer to see the reticle and the field of view, making a reflectorsight. Collimators may be used with laser diodes and CO2 cutting lasers....
measurement was made simply by aligning a sight on an object on the ground through a small telescope or reflectorsight. All of the complicated calculations...
desired object. Many reflectorsights have circles with a given angular dimension in order to facilitate this. Reflectorsights are less useful in light...
M9A1, the T43 sight was replaced by the Polaroid T90 optical reflectorsight, which used an etched reticle for aiming. The T43 and T90 sights were interchangeable...
also noted for his work to perfect the periscope and inventing the reflectorsight. Howard Grubb was one of eight children of Thomas Grubb, founder of...
are produced by non-magnifying optical devices such as reflectorsights (often called reflex sights) that give the viewer an image of the reticle superimposed...
started producing binoculars and the following year also telescopic sights and Reflectorsight called RD 17. All of the Blaser sport optics products are price...
additional ammunition belts fed the turret by means of a chute system. A reflectorsight was hung from the top of the turret, positioned roughly between the...
retroflector's reflection is brighter than that of a diffuse reflector. Corner reflectors and cat's eye reflectors are the most used kinds. There are several ways...
manufacturer claims that the sight will run continuously for 8 years on a single battery, in its 10th brightness setting. Reflectorsights have unlimited eye relief...
Philip Holland. Saccharimeter created by John Hewitt Jellett. 1901: Reflectorsight created by Howard Grubb. 1905: Underground conveyor belt created by...
illuminate the iron sights of some small arms. The reticle on the SA80's optical SUSAT sight as well as the LPS 4x6° TIP2 telescopic sight of a PSL rifle,...
that show the PIP are red dot sights like the M68 Aimpoint. Such sights, like those on an HUD, are collimated reflectorsights, so the dot always appears...
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