How to go Dark with a laptop

[DobDobDob]

I have a laptop that I want to take with me observing at night because it's lightweight and has several hours power supply without the need for running leads from a power source.

Some programs I have seen have a dark mode which switches everything red so you retain your night vision. Is there a way, other than a sheet of red cellophane, of reddening your standard laptop to run programs that don't have the neat dark vision option?

[[1ponders]]

There is a couple of ways, velcro a sheet of red filter gel (instead of celophane) or a 2x neutral density film to the screen edge. Both available from stage lighting specialists.

There is a program around called Dark Adapt, but it still lets white light through. Filtering is the way to go.

Check out this article by Dennis on Neutral Density Filters and Night Vision (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=63,213,0,0,1,0)

[DobDobDob]

Great thanks for the tip about the article, it has given me the ideas I needed. Interestingly the photo in the article at the bottom shows a Dell Latitude laptop, I have exactly the same one that I am trying to dim/filter :P

[[1ponders]]

:thumbsup:

[RB]

I had a dark red perspex cover made up at the local sign place with a bend at the top so it just clips over the screen.

[DobDobDob]

Necessity truly is the mother of invention :thumbsup: Thanks Rocket Boy

[RB]

Makes a great cheese plater afterwards !

[ballaratdragons]

Red sunglasses work good too. Turns ANY light red. :thumbsup:

[stephenmcnelley]

If you have software like skymap pro 10, and it is set to nightvision mode, and it is open on your pc, then every other program and document that you open after it will display in a basic red nightvision colour. If that is still to bright for night vision you can dim the screen power settings of your laptop to suit your visual needs perhaps, depending on the power level allocation capabilities of the pc.

[DobDobDob]

Thanks for those suggestions guys, I have enough ammo now to beat this issue. How come so many of you are on computers on a Friday night? I just went outside looked at the entire sky covered in cloud and then the full moon peaked out at me for 30 seconds before the clouds devoured it. This is from my location of course. :)

[stephenmcnelley]

Well, you just said it, laughing out loud honestly!

[ballaratdragons]

I am on the computer on a Friday night because: "I just went outside looked at the entire sky covered in cloud and then the full moon peaked out at me for 30 seconds before the clouds devoured it."

Seems to be common weather tonight. Geez it's hot though. Got to 39 today and still feels like about 30 outside, and 35 inside. :sadeyes:

[DobDobDob]

You got me thinking about weather across our wide brown land (where did those words come from) and I sourced this neat url: http://www.theweatherchaser.com/maps/index.html

[jjjnettie]

How come so many of you are on computers on a Friday night?

LOL, you don't score thousands of posts by going out on the weekends.

[ving]

i use CDC wich has night vision mode... its not perfect but it does save my night vision considerably :)

[DobDobDob]

Hi ving, I did a Google for CDC and got 31,300,000 responses perhaps you can save me a millennia and let me know what CDC actually stands for ;) TIA

[33South]

On behalf of Ving; Cartes Du Ciel, dont panic its French but comes in many languages including Australian (English actually)

http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/

[[1ponders]]

There is an issue with using the "night vision" setting on programs. It still allows a lot of white light through. Even when your screen is "black" there is still backlight coming through. Night vision settings do nothing for this effect. The only way to prevent this is to use filtering.

[DobDobDob]

Right, thanks guy's I am cool with CDC now and also have a plan to eliminate white light via a homemade filter I am going to construct. :hi:

[ving]

np, thanks for putting the link in on my behalf chris :)