Maintaining Night Vision with Laptop/Notebook PCs

[sheeny (Al)]

I've just got myself a notebook PC (next step will be a CCD camera... ) and I'm wondering what you guys who have been using notebooks/laptops for a while do to maintain your night vision?

Do you set your screen colours to red and black? Do you have a red screen cover? Do you shut one eye or what?

Al.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

a red plastic laptop shield is what i use.

[RAJAH235]

Red 'see thru' cast acrylic sheet, from 'most/some' glass/plastics, suppliers. Shade #101, I think, from memory. #103 is a shade lighter.
Manufacturer is > Astari Niagara International. L.

[Dennis]

Hi AL

Have a look in the Forum under "Projects & DIY" or try this link http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.p...91cd1ac1801946

Cheers

Dennis

[astroron (Ron)]

What does it matter what colour you use at the computer as most astro imagers don't look through the telescope ,so what good is night vision?.
The last time I was at Qld Astrofest the number of VERY BRIGHT Red lights on peoples heads, and hutches with red lights so bright on the astro imagers area you could see them 50 mts away
When Astrofest started in 1993 when one left the dinning room to go back out to the observing field you had to stand still for a couple of minutes to get dark adapted, but now with all the very bright red lights and computer screens it is no problem to manouver the observing area where the astro imagers are set up.
Even the dullest red light affects your night vision so keep the brightness to a minamum, in saying that I have heard that Green is better than red fo night time vision.
Just my two bobs worth.astroron

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by astroron

Even the dullest red light affects your night vision so keep the brightness to a minamum, in saying that I have heard that Green is better than red fo night time vision.
Just my two bobs worth.astroron

It depends on what you want. One of the better articles explaining the different effects of colour on night vision that I have seen is here:

http://stlplaces.com/night_vision.html

I guess for my interpretation of this, red is still the go especially if you can get the level low enough, unless everyone is using green. I'd like to experiment a bit with different colours though... based on the stuff in the above article, using a green light might offer some benefit in seeing dim red objects like emission nebulae (but only if the level is low enough not to effect the rods!)

While I can appreciate that if all you are doing is imaging, and you are by yourself, then fine - who cares about night vision, but if you have other people present, or want to do some observing between images or just use the notebook as a log/reference (something I've never done in the past since I haven't had one! ) then something needs to be done to minimise the impact on night vision.

Al.

[NightCal]

Try the software 'Dark Adapted' at http://www.adpartnership.net/DarkAdapted/

[davidpretorius]

i turn my brightness to minimum, starry night has night vision mode
and when needed i use nightview, alittle exe that converts the colours:

As always with programs, i have tested this and have seen no abnormal side effects, but use at your own risk etc (it is sad we have to say this)

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Get yourself an eyepatch Al.

Unless you use both eyes when you're viewing you can use your left eye to view the laptop screen with your right eye covered. I have read however that even this can effect the vision in your right eye because of how the brain tries to work your eyes in tandem, ie when it adjusts one eye it tries to make adjustmenst to both eyes, but I've not noticed a significant effect.

Using the patch does make it fun to try and walk around though. After viewing th laptop with the patch on and then turning away from the screen and trying to negotiate objects can be fun when one eye doesn't see as well as the other. Going down steps after being inside is a real challenge too