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Old 02-02-2011, 02:52 PM
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firstlight (Tony)
You can't have everything

firstlight is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Acacia Ridge, Queensland
Posts: 1,503
The one I use is the Energiser 1 red LED and 2 white. the switch moves left or right for one comour or the other, but there are a few issues at crowded venues such as the Queensland Astrofest and the like. There can be a few problems with a person walking about with one of these lights as the red LED is quite bright and it is often directed outwards and can shine done the tube of your neighbouring observer/imager. The committee might seem like a killjoy as the tool is very helpful, but we were approached by many people about this subject.

Our policy had been:- That the white light switch needed to be prevented from operating (a bit of tape solves that problem); One of the batteries should be substituted for either plain wire or a resistor to mute the glow; The light needs to be directed downwards where at all
practicable.
I find that one good solution has been to turn the torch to white and put it in my kit for a few days. The 2 LEDs drain the batteries until it no longer operates, but switching to red works and at a muted level, which is still bright enough to tinker about without inflaming your neighbour. The other solution I have implemented with a couple of my lamps is to cut the white LEDs and remove them. I don't have white but the red LED on three batteries is more than ample for anything but brain surgery .
I hope this hasn't been too much of a red herring to this thread.
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