Warning: My neighbor told me I was ruiling my night vision with my phone

I used to check star maps on my phone every 5 minutes, but my neighbor said it was killing my dark adaptation for 30 minutes each time. Now I use a red flashlight and print my charts before going out, and I saw way more dim stars last Tuesday night in my backyard. Anybody else get called out for bad stargazing habits?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_chen611d ago

The red flashlight trick is a game changer, I switched to one years ago and never looked back. People don't realize phones have so much blue light that it ruins your night vision for way longer than you think. Printing charts ahead of time is smart, I just use a red headlamp and keep my phone buried in my pocket. Your neighbor did you a favor, honestly, paying for it with a few more dim stars visible.

victor_carr2511d ago

The red headlamp thing works fine most nights, but you gotta be careful with your neighbor's setup. That dimming system they installed, it's not just about cutting the light level. A lot of those newer LED dimmers actually flicker really fast, like 60 times a second or more. Most people don't notice it, but your eyes pick up on that flicker and it messes with your night vision in a different way than steady light does. I had a buddy who put in a dimmer for his backyard lights and swore it was fine, but when I looked through his scope the sky looked jumpy and weird. Might be worth checking if your neighbor's dimmer is a smooth one or one of those cheap flickering types, just saying.