How do pilots see at night during flight?
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Avionics systems engineer here!
Pilots have a lot of different ways to navigate in the dark or any time there is low visibility, and the number of options will vary depending on the aircraft. All aircraft will have basic instruments that tell them altitude and where the horizon is.
Fancier aircraft can have synthetic vision systems that show a digital 3D map of the terrain on the primary flight display. [Example. ](https://www.collinsaerospace.com/what-we-do/industries/business-aviation/flight-deck/vision-systems)
Even fancier aircraft can have heads-up displays built into a helmet or the windshield. These will project a green outline of the runway and display the normal gauges. [Example. ](https://prd-sc101-cdn.rtx.com/-/media/ca/product-assets/marketing/h/head-up-display/head-up-display-img_0027_1v2.jpg?rev=28bef87142c64fadb2bc71fbd1760920)
And in case the pilot ever strays too low, approaches a stall, etc there are many monitoring systems that will display text alerts, sound alarms, or sound aural alerts (ex. A voice will recording will say “Too Low!”)
For navigation aircraft can have fancy digital maps, but older aircraft may just have a compass.
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