Polarized sunglasses illuminate reticle ?

[MIL-DOT]

This may or not be totally useless, but i thought it at least a little unusual and interesting. Last Sunday i was at my brothers plinking with our pellet rifles
and i was wearing a pair of Costa Del Mar polarized sunglasses and i noticed that they seemed to make the reticle in my scope appear an illuminated blue color. I had my brother put on my glasses and take a look and he agreed.
Like i said, not earth shattering, but odd.
By the way, the scope is a Bushnell Elite 3200 Mil-Dot 5-15x40.

 

[3pairs12]

I wear polarized sunglasses. Never noticed the reticle appearing illuminated but it seems to may things clearer for me.

 

[GarandOwner]

Is the rifle scope polarized? If it is then when you rotate your scope or head around it, it will "fade to black/purple/blue) this is from the cross polarizations filtering out all visible light, since blue has the shortest wavelength, it would be the last to be filtered out (Purple is the last but some notice the blue more) Though when I've seen this it didnt look illuminated, just blue. So there might be something else going on here.

 

[lions]

There is no way polarized sunglasses would actually illuminate the reticle. I think you are seeing an illusion of illumination. Any color next to black may appear to be illuminated simply because it is a brighter color. Depending on the shade of blue it may look more or less illuminated. The sunglasses don't illuminate the reticle but that doesn't mean this is a useless observation. If the blue color of the reticle makes it stand out more against a certain backdrop this could certainly be helpful.

 

[MIL-DOT]

Well, of course i realize my glasses aren't actually illuminating my reticle, it's some kind of optical illusion, but it very much does make it appear illuminated,
( and blue) and my brother confirmed this impression.Also, it does this regardless of background, even against the sky.And i'm pretty sure the scope isn't polarized, but then again, with all the coatings involved, it very well could be.
Oh, wait a minute..........my costa del mars have a reflective blue outer lens surface, and light could be reflecting off them and into the scope and then back off the reticle. OK, nevermind.....i'm an idiot.

 

[lions]

Just to clarify...

but it very much does make it appear illuminated,

I don't doubt that at all, in fact I agreed that it would do that.

Also, it does this regardless of background, even against the sky.

I wasn't trying to say the background had anything to do with it, simply that if the blue color was helpful against the background you shoud keep doing what you're doing.

Anyway, glad you figured it out. Happy shooting!