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Appreciation post: my $12 planisphere beat my phone app at a star party in Flagstaff
I always used a star app on my phone until a guy at a dark sky event in Flagstaff last weekend handed me a plastic planisphere he got for $12. His point was simple: the screen glow from my phone was killing my night vision for a good 20 minutes every time I checked it. I timed it later and he was spot on, I was basically blind to the faint stuff for a while after each glance. That little wheel of cardboard let me find Andromeda in about 30 seconds without any light at all. Anyone else ditched the app for paper, or do you just keep the phone on the red filter setting?
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lilycraig1mo ago
The bit about the phone glow wrecking your night vision is totally right, but it's not the app itself that's the problem, it's the white light. Red filter mode DOES help a lot, way more than people give it credit for. The catch is most phones leak some white light from the edges or the screen never gets dim enough, so you still lose some adaptation, just not the full 20 minutes. A planisphere wins because it reflects almost nothing and needs zero power, but a phone on a good red setting at low brightness is honestly fine for most stuff. The real takeaway is that paper and red light both work, it's the bright white screen that kills you.
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