Another interesting find at a car boot sale

[jonathan]

I bought a box full of chargers and other random electronics, and in the bottom of the box were about ten little promotional freebie red LED torches, the kind that just have a button battery cell and a simple on/off button, single ultra-bright red LED.

I thought these could be handy for shining into polar scopes, I tried one out with the Stellarscope I got a few weeks ago from a different car boot sale (same kind of thing as a polar scope) and it works a treat for lighting up the star map. It would be a bit dazzling to look at directly, but used carefully it would also make a nice small and simple red LED torch. I have attached one to a belt clip pull-out reel cord thing, so it's there on my hip when ever I need it. There is also a little slide switch for permanently keeping the LED on, in addition to the main button which forms one side of the body.

The good part is that the body is held together by four screws so the CR2032 battery can be easily replaced. I might be persuaded to let a few of these go so if anyone wants one send me a message on here, first come first serve!

[sologuitarist61]

Looks like a bargain to me!

[JonnyP]

They tend to come free on the front of bike mags so I've got loads of them!

If I need to use one at the scope I keep my hand closed around it and use my fingers to 'damp' down the brightness so I don't blind myself.

The battery normally lasts for much longer than any astro specific red torch I've come across.