Dear 'astro' light/torch manufacturers...

[Drac0 (Mark)]

...can you please make your lights more suitable for use doing astro in the field?

[RANT ON]
My old light was on the way out so for my birthday last month I was given an 'astronomy' torch/light - not a cheap one either. It is a great thing, but I do have two issues with it:

1. It needs to have the ability to be set so the red light comes on when first turned on. Whether this is via a switch or some other method would be great. This one requires FOUR presses to get to a red light - it goes bright white LED torch, bright white lantern, low white lantern before getting to bright red lantern with another press for low red. It's great being able to do a long press to turn it off from any position, so maybe a long press to go straight to red when turning on?

2. It has a nice adjustable red light which is fantastic, so why the hell go and put bright green power level indicators on it? Green on mine but seen them with other colours like blue. Why not just use red indicators? I've ended up covering mine.

No complaints about the light itself, but if you're going to make a light marketed towards astronomy, how about making it just that little more suitable for the purpose...
[/RANT OFF]

Cheers,
Mark

[Crater101 (Warren)]

I've had a similar experience with a hiking head torch I purchased for use with the 'scope. It starts with a Bright White LED, and you have to press a button a couple of times to get it to go to red. And while the white LED is dimmable, the red isn't.
The head torch itself is overall a great quality one, no real complaints, but going through all of that each time you turn it on is a pain.

[ronson]

I can only share experience with what worked for me. I use a Nitecore NU25, NU25 - Nitecore Australia. This is not advertised as a dedicated astro torch, but one of the suitable activities. It has a dedicated button for the red light. The red light has 3 modes in this order - dim, bright, flashing and you can power off from each mode, so no need to cycle through. It's rechargeable, so I can hook it to my power bank if needed. If only using the red light, it lasts ages.


PS: I see today these are considerably more expensive to what I paid 2-3 years ago. There might be better value/feature offers available.

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

I use a 77outdoor LED Rechargeable Headlamp. Get it from amazon. Does white and red light. If you press and hold down the power button from the off position it goes straight to red light and skips white. You actually have to turn it off and tap the power button to get back to white light mode.

Its also detachable.

[Dave882 (David)]

I can completely relate to this gripe on one of my own Astro head lamps. I ended up just getting a cheap light off eBay. I had 2 requirements: separate button for red, rechargeable internal battery.
I’m very happy with my purchase.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/31285898...mis&media=COPY

[Drac0 (Mark)]

Some nice suggestions for headlamps in there, will have to check them out for when I'm out in dark skies. The light I have (https://astronight.com.au/products/n...40524516262028) is a great light overall, but being marketed as a light for astro it does fall short in the places mentioned. It's great for around home or other locations where night vision is shot anyway. But unless I'm going to leave it on for long periods, not so good for under dark skies.

Thanks all,
Mark

[gregmc (Greg)]

I’ve just looked into red lights and can suggest AstroDog pro astronomy headlamp or Astro night headlamp v-340

[Finbar (Barry)]

One of our vendor colleagues recently mentioned the same objection as the reason for declining to stock a particular torch. Anything for astro use starting invariably in white light is just daft.

He recently got Astro Night's "Proxima-3" - a set of 3 red lights for tripods, with three brightness settings. I've only had one chance to use them. In theory one goes per tripod leg, but at my place only one was sufficient, and certainly help me not to trip over it. They could be useful clipped under or behind various things.

For several years I've used a Ledlenser headlamp. Two white light settings, but a long press flips it to red LED, but not adjustable. Setting it to either red or white is retained for every time it is turned on. One problem with these is forgetting it’s on and looking directly at someone's face.

[Leo.G (Leo)]

I took a different approach with a small step ladder I use with an 8" Newt and mounted red LEDs on the front of the bottom step and an 18650 battery holder with a switch. The primary reason was so I always know where the bottom step is and don't trip over the thing in the dark. It's bad enough with leads running across the ground which I try to cover with cheap mats out in the yard. I generally go for the cheap Aldi car mat sets.