Many of you use the red LED-equipped pens for taking notes at night. I just received a green version, apparently made by the same company, but the body is turquoise rather than black. There was some debate awhile ago on whether red is really the best "color" for an astronomer's light; some folks claiming that intensity was more important than wavelength (color), especially at the very dim settings we normally use. I must confess that I prefer a green or white light for reading charts, from an aesthetic standpoint alone, but tend to use red just to avoid irritating fellow observers. Now there is a choice. I plan on trying both out at the eyepiece to see if I can detect a difference in my dark adaptation, aesthetics aside. Amercian Science & Surplus has the green ones, stock #34489. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
I still think colors are most important. Especially when Joan's telescope color, matches her car color. And Nate's red scope with the white end is especially nifty. (Guess you had to have seen the video to get this LOL). ;) Cyn Chuck Hards wrote:
Many of you use the red LED-equipped pens for taking notes at night.
I just received a green version, apparently made by the same company, but the body is turquoise rather than black.
There was some debate awhile ago on whether red is really the best "color" for an astronomer's light; some folks claiming that intensity was more important than wavelength (color), especially at the very dim settings we normally use. I must confess that I prefer a green or white light for reading charts, from an aesthetic standpoint alone, but tend to use red just to avoid irritating fellow observers.
Now there is a choice. I plan on trying both out at the eyepiece to see if I can detect a difference in my dark adaptation, aesthetics aside.
Amercian Science & Surplus has the green ones, stock #34489.
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Hi Chuck, Not long ago I made my own LED light from Radio Shack parts, red at one end of the case, green at the other, and a toggle switch that would let me select either color. I did this with the intention of seeing for myself which one worked better, having heard the same arguments for/against that you have. I much prefer the green; it's dimmer than the red, and because the human eye is much more sensitive to green wavelengths, works as well or better, with better overall results, and does not seem to cause any significant impairment to my dark adaptation (and definitely less so than the red). Plus it's overall dim enough that I've not had anyone observing near me complain about it so far... Green is also what makes the display on my Sky Commander DSC's so nice; LCD backlit in a soft green glow. The backlight intensity is kept quite dim and still shows off the data no problem, without sucking batteries dry as rapidly as the LED-displays do. BTW, a pencil is a much better instrument for note taking and especially sketching; I find myself frequently erasing, and it doesn't malfunction when the temp gets cold! -Rich --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Many of you use the red LED-equipped pens for taking notes at night.
I just received a green version, apparently made by the same company, but the body is turquoise rather than black.
There was some debate awhile ago on whether red is really the best "color" for an astronomer's light; some folks claiming that intensity was more important than wavelength (color), especially at the very dim settings we normally use. I must confess that I prefer a green or white light for reading charts, from an aesthetic standpoint alone, but tend to use red just to avoid irritating fellow observers.
Now there is a choice. I plan on trying both out at the eyepiece to see if I can detect a difference in my dark adaptation, aesthetics aside.
Amercian Science & Surplus has the green ones, stock #34489.
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Was up flying tonight getting current again in multi engine aircraft and what I saw on the instrument panel reminded me of this thread. While the cockpit's overhead light was red, most of the instruments were side lit with green light. Keeping the red light down and having the green glowing in front of me made for an interesting atmosphere. The green light worked pretty well (I would have preferred the green to be a bit brighter) and was certainly less glaring than the red. Patrick Richard Tenney wrote:
Hi Chuck,
Not long ago I made my own LED light from Radio Shack parts, red at one end of the case, green at the other, and a toggle switch that would let me select either color. I did this with the intention of seeing for myself which one worked better, having heard the same arguments for/against that you have. I much prefer the green; it's dimmer than the red, and because the human eye is much more sensitive to green wavelengths, works as well or better, with better overall results, and does not seem to cause any significant impairment to my dark adaptation (and definitely less so than the red). Plus it's overall dim enough that I've not had anyone observing near me complain about it so far...
Green is also what makes the display on my Sky Commander DSC's so nice; LCD backlit in a soft green glow. The backlight intensity is kept quite dim and still shows off the data no problem, without sucking batteries dry as rapidly as the LED-displays do.
BTW, a pencil is a much better instrument for note taking and especially sketching; I find myself frequently erasing, and it doesn't malfunction when the temp gets cold!
-Rich
You know the theory - visual purple (rhodopsin) is depleted more rapidly with shorter wavelengths. That is why red is the choice. Green is supposed to deplete the visual purple more often. Many years ago when I was working for a local computer graphics company, I had the chance to work with some folks at NASA - Moffett Field. Some researchers were using some of our color image generators in flight simulators to explore what the best color for cockpit illumination and pilot visibility is. They were of the opinion that green was better than red, and that the depletion of rhodopsin was minimally larger than that with red light. The heavy iron these days uses white light in the cockpit. There is no worry any longer about the color of light. Of course, it is dimmable, and what a pilot needs to see is much brighter than what an astronomer needs to see. FWIW, YMMV, etc. Brent --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Many of you use the red LED-equipped pens for taking notes at night.
I just received a green version, apparently made by the same company, but the body is turquoise rather than black.
There was some debate awhile ago on whether red is really the best "color" for an astronomer's light; some folks claiming that intensity was more important than wavelength (color), especially at the very dim settings we normally use. I must confess that I prefer a green or white light for reading charts, from an aesthetic standpoint alone, but tend to use red just to avoid irritating fellow observers.
Now there is a choice. I plan on trying both out at the eyepiece to see if I can detect a difference in my dark adaptation, aesthetics aside.
Amercian Science & Surplus has the green ones, stock #34489.
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participants (5)
-
Brent Watson -
Chuck Hards -
Cynthia Blue -
Patrick Wiggins -
Richard Tenney