Experimental RCA Image Orthicon 5820A

[Aussie Bloke]

Man I WANT this tube, it looks COOL!!! What museum is this tube located in?

I have decided to a bit of research on the Google punching in image orthicon and night vision and have actually found a Popular Mechanics article from 1959 on night vision camera experiments using IO tubes fitted with night vision and scrolling down the pages I see a 3 inch IO fitted with a night vision apparatus similar to the one in your photo except it's a lot longer. Here is the link to the Popular Mechanics magazine, just scroll down a bit and you'll see a drawing of the night vision modified IO:
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=...vision&f=false

Oh also check out the IO tube at the bottom of this page http://www.aade.com/tubepedia/1colle...tubepedia1.htm it is said to be fitted with an image intensifier for night vision, it looks much more like the tube in your photo but has (I guess) coils wrapped around the intensifier, could be what's missing off the tube in your photo.

From those sources it would have to be what you said, an IO fitted with a night vision image intensifier.