Terry Sweet said:
Does anyone know of a source for some small RED LED lights I can mount on my scope mount.
Terry,
Although you can make your own LED light system from scratch, be aware that you have to wire a current limiting resistor of the correct value in series with the LED it order to get it to work. An LED alone, connected to a battery will not work.
The big advantages of LED lights are:
1. Almost no heat.
2. Uses very little current.
3. LED's last almost forever.
If you want a semi ready-made LED light system, just go to Wal-Mart and shop around in the automotive and sporting goods sections. For an LED light you can connect to a 12 volt battery pack system, Wall-Mart sells small red LED truck clearance lights which can be cut down and modified to most any use. I modified a two-LED unit to replace the bulb in my truck's dome light to provide dim red light when I open the truck door at star parties. I also made a star chart reading light by taking the guts out of a 120 volt clamp-on headboard reading lamp and replaced the bulb with an 8 LED red truck clearance light. I just clamp the lamp to the top handle of a 12 volt battery pack and have an instant table top red reading lamp.
Another item I found at Wal-Mart the other day was in the automotive accessory section. It's a 12" long self-adhesive strip with an embedded row of tiny red LED's, designed to be attached most anyplace on a car; under the dash, in the glove box, etc. This LED system would be easy to adapt to astro use.
If you want a completely self contained small red LED light, go to the bicycle section at Wal-Mart and buy a battery operated red LED bicycle tail light. These are made to attach to the back of a bike or clip onto a back-pack, and are usually powered by two AAA batteries. Most have multiple LED's and are designed to blink but they usually have a single-LED-on-constantly setting. You can attach it to almost anything with some self stick Velcro and/or a home made holder bracket.
You can also modify one of those single red LED keychain lights for astro use by replacing the coin cell power supply with a larger battery system of equal voltage and installing an on-off switch.
If you can't find an LED light with either a built in red lens or an actual red LED, you can buy a roll of red "tail light repair tape" at Wal-Mart and make most any light red. I also use this red tape to cover the annoyingly bright status lights on my laptop for night use. I can still see the status lights but they are red and very dim.
AS they say, necessity is the mother of invention.
