My interest is amateur astronomy, where the preservation of night vision is critical, so the red light setting is most important. My question: would the red light setting produce enough light to view star charts at night under a completely dark sky? My interest is amateur astronomy, where the preservation of night vision is critical, so the red light setting is most important. My question: would the red light setting produce enough light to... » Read More My interest is amateur astronomy, where the preservation of night vision is critical, so the red light setting is most important. My question: would the red light setting produce enough light to view star charts at night under a completely dark sky? « Show Less
750875
Amateur astronomy "under a completely dark sky"? Maybe a weather radio would be more helpful than a lantern at this point.
750876
Gordon, here is your solution: LRI PPRO Proton Pro White/Red, 2-Colors-in-1 LED Flashlight, 1-Pack This is the only option for reading astronomy charts in darkness. The red LED starts out at its dimmest setting (which is extremely dim) and can be adjusted to any level between its lowest and brightest setting. Includes a white light too which is perfectly adequate for navigating in the dark. Its dim setting is also extremely low!
750877
I believe for your application would be too bright if lantern was say hanging at eye level if you had it lower than your eyes and made a thin "shade" on 1/2 of the lantern ( I used the back of a note pad ) so light would only come out of the unshielded side instead of 360' might work and say on a bench or table behind you - once your eyes get use to the red it becomes fairly bright for for a single led
750878
The red light for this lantern is very bright. You should be able to read a chart with it's red light on.
750879
Yes, there is certainly enough red light to read a document in the dark. In fact, the 10 lumens might be a bit too bright for your needs.
750880
I bought mine for astronomy also. The red brightness is good for city astronomy and a bit bright for really dark skies. Too bad streamlight didn't allow the red LED to be dimmed like the white LEDs. It's still excellent for astronomy.
750881
I'm not.in to astronomy so I don't know how much light is too much for you. But I have used the red light mode to walk through a cabin and not wake anyone. So I think it would work for your needs.
653284
I have added a link to the Photon color explanation chart. It's got really good info. I got the blue and it is TOO bright for what I use it for. I should've gotten red because it protects your nightvision. http://www.photonlight.com/pages/Photon-LED-Beam-Colors.html
783803
This is kind of "geeky" but it's why the red LED is used for the Flashflight discs; the red LED light is being emitted at 630nm WaveLength. It is closer to the the Infrared Night Vision range on the WaveLength scale. The red light will have the least impact on your vision in the dark. Meaning you can look directly at the Flashflight disc and then look away and your eyes will balance/correct back to your night vision faster and easier.
1867098
The quick answer is no. However the night vision is better than I expected. Plus, one can see the red light that emits from it.
113063
No, you don't need total darkness but you don't want to use it as you would a normal monocular either. You certainly wouldn't want to direct the viewing field to street lights, etc. during use but those far off lights should not present a problem. The cap that is on the objective lens should not be removed during daylight. We are in a rural environment but are surrounded by island of very bright light on our horizons and we have traffic that goes by our home. Both can give our eyes a reason to readjust. It was bought as a Christmas 'toy' and has given a great deal of enjoyment. We too are happy with the purchase. No, you don't need total darkness but you don't want to use it as you would a normal monocular either. You certainly wouldn't want to direct the viewing field to street lights, etc. during use but those far off lights should not present a problem. The cap that is on the objective lens should not be removed during daylight. We are in a rural environment but are surrounded by island of very bright light on our horizons and we have traffic that goes by our home. Both can give our eyes a reason to readjust. It was bought as a Christmas 'toy' and has given a great deal of enjoyment. We too are... » Read More No, you don't need total darkness but you don't want to use it as you would a normal monocular either. You certainly wouldn't want to direct the viewing field to street lights, etc. during use but those far off lights should not present a problem. The cap that is on the objective lens should not be removed during daylight. We are in a rural environment but are surrounded by island of very bright light on our horizons and we have traffic that goes by our home. Both can give our eyes a reason to readjust. It was bought as a Christmas 'toy' and has given a great deal of enjoyment. We too are happy with the purchase. « Show Less
2205526
"Useable yes, easy no" is my experience. If the sunlight is really bright, it is hard to see the red dot. Not a problem if you are doing simple distance measurements, but triangulation did not work well for me. It's great on a moonlit night!
445462
You will see more stars than with the naked eye. 7x35s are a good tool for beginning astronomy. Lot's of stars, wide field of view.
1758860
Re: I forgot to tell you that items are not infra red. So at night you can't see anything. But at night, don't open your door to anyone..Anyway, I have a light which is near the camera, and enlightens automatically.
1187377
Without a half moon or better it will be dicey. Also consider any interior lighting might be bounced off the window killing some of the clarity. Ruts in the road will not be obvious without moonlight shadow. Depends on a bunch of things. Slow putting around and you are probably OK. Off road racing would be scary.
1331313
As long as your video camera has the option" night vision"this late does not produce any light that is visual to the human eye unless you are looking through your night vision camera. This just enhances quite a bit what you are able to see without light. Hope this helps and good luck.
1459911
There's no night vision. And the binoculars were absolute junk. I threw them away. FYI: to have good performance at night, they would have to be infrared sensitive (which they're not) or have really wide aperture, for better light gathering (which they don't). I would recommend buying a pair of Celestron 8x21 binoculars. They work pretty well, but not for night vision.
2116419
I have had pretty good luck with night shots, however it only works if there's a little light to work with. I have put my camera in an area where there's a lot of over growth and No moon light and my pictures are also dark.If the area is open and there's some light to work with its pretty good in my opinion.
2257132
I tried stargazing the other night. Of course it brings the stars a little closer to you, but it's not a telescope or intended for that. It's still a alot of fun though You can still identify constellations and take a quick look at the night sky. They are great for hiking, walking, identifying birds in trees--or just seeing what's going on down at the corner!
783808
From a scientific POV, white is best at night. But red is more interesting and does pretty well.
869548
I've never tried the 21061, so cannot say how big the difference is. But with more than 1.6x the light gathering power of 21061, 21063 should be able to see more dark sky objects, like nebulae and galaxies. For terrestrial viewing and bright planets, there should be no big difference.
97811
The auto focus mechanism needs something to focus on to focus. That sounds silly, but a star does not give the auto focus anything to work with. I haven't had much luck with my 4x30 super wides at night. A bigger issue with star gazing is the 30mm objective lens size. The small objectives don't let in much light. Astronomy observing is all about how much light enters your eye.
2126639
Really depends on your location, the further you are from light pollution the better. This scope will see brighter deep sky objects, such as the Orion nebula, crab nebula and ring nebula, and these will appear as smudges, not as dots (stars appear as dots, nebula are free floating gasses illuminated by nearby stars). Even in larger scopes that are designed for deep sky 8 or 10 inches in aperture or more, you won't see that much detail but will be able to detect dimmer deep sky objects. Not until you get a scope which is 14 inches or more in diameter and minimal light pollution do you get good detail in fainter objects while viewing.