What is Tritium for sights?
Is it a mineral that stores the UV energy and then glows in the night or is it like fiber glass that conducts night light (moon, stars).
The one on my S/A TRP/SS does not glow in the night...then again it did not see the day light yet.
EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN...

It is a slightly radioactive ( I think ) mineral that will radiate or glow after being exposed to a bright light.  Kinda like the glowing dials on a wristwatch.

It is actually a radioactive byproduct of ???  that glows without any other catalyst ([i]such as a light to "charge" it[/i]) for several years...  generally 7-10.

Tritium is a radioactive substance.  In a site it is encased in a glass chamber in a gaseous form that is lined with phospherous on the inside, much like a picture tube on a television.  Similar to the way a TV works a tritium site utilizes the radioactive element to illuminate the phosphorous coating.

The radioactive particles emitted impact and excite the phosphorous molecules causing them to emit photons of light.

IIRC you get more radiation from a lightbulb or something like that!

its an isotope of hydrogen
H3 is the elemental structure

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen.  It has a single proton and two neutrons.  It emits a beta particle (electron) to become a Helium-3 nucleus (two protons, one neutron).

The tube in which the tritium is sealed has a phosphor on the inside end.  The electron (beta particle) bangs into the phosphor, causing the phosphor to glow -- just like your TV set.

As the tritium decays (half life of six  years, IIRC), the sight gets dimmer, since there is less and less tritium (and more and more helium-3) as time goes by.

Hydrogen-1 has a single proton as the nucleus.
Deuterium is hydrogen-2, a proton and neutron as the nucleus.
Tritium is hydrogen-3, a proton and two neutrons as the nucleus.

I believe the half life is 12yrs not 6

Yep, 12.  I shoulda looked it up instead of just marking it with an "IIRC".  My bad.  Thanks!

Dacon just a question what shop said something about it storing UV energy? i have heard this bs before and i wonder if its the same source