Hi All,
This may be of interest to those who are blessed with dark enough skies that they need some light to navigate amongst the equipment and charts. When both hands are otherwise occupied with chores (always!), I usually plonk the Rigel LED flashlight in my mouth and try my darndest to aim it where needed (and have chewed through many a lanyard over the years!
) Well...
At a recent observing session, a friend turned me on to the LED headbands that campers/hikers use. Both hands free, mouth unencumbered (so as to better talk to oneself!), and light WHERE you need it.. a truly novel idea! Unfortunately, some of these units are pricey and few have anything other than white LEDs. But...
(If one is located near you) "The Sporting Authority" is having a sale on the model shown below... their normal price is about $20, reduced to $16, but NOW only 8 bucks!!!
The unit is light in weight, has a reasonably comfortable adjustable elasticized headband, and will emit light for an eternity using 3 AAA batteries. It has a Krypton bulb for when a high level of brightness is needed and three LEDs that can be set so only one is on or all three... I applied some red lacquer to the center LED and Voilá... astro-light! The other two LEDS or Krypton lamp can illuminate the area when searching for the thumb-screws etc that invariably get dropped during the session... whooops!
Cheers,
Paul
--- http://www.astro-nut.com/ --
This may be of interest to those who are blessed with dark enough skies that they need some light to navigate amongst the equipment and charts. When both hands are otherwise occupied with chores (always!), I usually plonk the Rigel LED flashlight in my mouth and try my darndest to aim it where needed (and have chewed through many a lanyard over the years!
) Well...At a recent observing session, a friend turned me on to the LED headbands that campers/hikers use. Both hands free, mouth unencumbered (so as to better talk to oneself!
), and light WHERE you need it.. a truly novel idea! Unfortunately, some of these units are pricey and few have anything other than white LEDs. But...(If one is located near you) "The Sporting Authority" is having a sale on the model shown below... their normal price is about $20, reduced to $16, but NOW only 8 bucks!!!
The unit is light in weight, has a reasonably comfortable adjustable elasticized headband, and will emit light for an eternity using 3 AAA batteries. It has a Krypton bulb for when a high level of brightness is needed and three LEDs that can be set so only one is on or all three... I applied some red lacquer to the center LED and Voilá... astro-light! The other two LEDS or Krypton lamp can illuminate the area when searching for the thumb-screws etc that invariably get dropped during the session... whooops!
Cheers,
Paul
--- http://www.astro-nut.com/ --
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