Laptop + night vision..?

[Tim]

In view of the upcoming star party, I was wondering, what do you guys do to stop your laptop screens from blinding everybody?

The other week I tried setting up a red theme, which about drove me mental, and in the end I coudlnt see the mouse, cursor or anything....

Is there a way to go dark/red temporarily? What does the etiquette require of laptop users?

Thanks

TJ

[GazOC]

IMHO you're far better off printing off the star charts and using a red torch to look at them. I've never found a really satisfactory way of dimming a laptop.

[Jamie]

http://www.adpartnership.net/DarkAdapted/index.html

This ought to do the trick mate.. 8)

[centroid]

Software such as, Starry Night Pro, TheSky6, Maxim DL and Astroart, all have a 'night vision' setting, which gives a red screen.

However, when I was using a really old lap-top that couldn't handle this, I made up a red screen cover from a sheet of acetate.

This is the stuff they use to cover theatrical 'spot lights', and comes in a variety of colours.

I bought a sheet from a local shop that hired out disco equipment, which of course included lighting.

Dave

[lunator]

The best temporary solution I have found is to use a red plastic folder and put it over the screen.

It will reduce the glare but any light will affect your night vision.

Cheers

Ian

[blinky]

I am wondering exactly the same thing. I have tried Dark Adapted but cannot for the life of me get it to work I think I will have to look at some stationers for red plastic.

[GazOC]

IMHO Dark Adpated takes the edge off the light thrown off by a laptop but its not enough for visual astronomy, you still get too affected to find those faint fuzzies.

[MikeP]

I can't get it to work either blinky. I think I'll try again tomorrow, but nothing happens at present, no matter what I do with the sliders. If all else fails, I'll read the instructions.

Since I use EQMOD, I normally cover the screen with one of those red plastic folders that WH Smith sell. It fits a treat.

Mike

[beamish]

IMHO the best way I've found to resolve this problem has been the Red photo gel method, like Gazoc said the lappy and variety of "night-vision"options just isn't good enough.

Karlo

[Tim]

Do you know, I never even thought of using red acetate! What a great idea.

Also, It gives me an excuse to buy and eat loads of 'quality street' chocs, then use the wrappers, stuck to the screen.

I cant do star charts, I NEED the lappy, as I dont really do visual stuff. Hell, when the au pair arrives I'm not even gonna do laptop stuff, just leave a sheet of instructions and dock her pay for out of focus images.

I was under the impression that red light had NO effect whatsoever on night vision. So is that not the case? Does it affect it slightly?

Cheers

TJ

[GazOC]

I was under the impression that red light had NO effect whatsoever on night vision. So is that not the case? Does it affect it slightly?

Yep it does . But I'd guess its OK if you are imaging or just trying to stop the light from your laptop annoying the bloke in the next pitch at a star party.

[Tim]

what REALLY annoys me when imaging (I use that term in the loosest sense, probably "exposing" would be better, but that sounds dodgy), is the [glow=red,2,300] GREEN[/glow] light on top of the canon cameras, right in your eyeball, and on what is touted as an astro cam too.

[GazOC]

To be fair to Canon they don't make their cameras out to be astro cams, its just the enthusiasts find them good at the job. The astronomy market is so small to Canon that they don't even worry about it.

[Tim]

Hmm, I was under the impression that the inbuilt dark frame subtraction technology was a fair indication that they do value the business that arises from astro sales?

I read that somewhere. Might have been in the Daily Star. Weren't many pictures as I recall.

TJ

[GazOC]

Thats just something they can implement in software/ firmware that doesn't really cost any money. Moving a green led (that should be red anyway) from a camera already in production is more than the few cameras they sell to astronomers is worth.

I read that in the Daily Sport, it must be true!!

[Tim]

Wonder what colour LED this camera had,

http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/product_finder/cameras/digital_slr/eos20da/index.asp

I still think that Canon take the astro market seriously.

TJ

[GazOC]

Anyone who takes the astro market seriously wouldn't put a green LED anywhere near their camera, the fact they got lucky and put a red LED on another model doesn't really mean much IMHO.

[Tim]

actually, all of canon's website links to astrophot's are dead now, from jan 24th.

maybe they gave up.

[Nightjar]

I like the red folder from W.H. Smith idea.

I'm using a Mac PowerBook for webcam imaging, and I've got DarkAdapted to work OK, once I discovered the 'bright red' setting instead of 'dark red' which turned everything black. Also, must remember to get a BabyBel wrapper to cover the annoyingly bright Apply logo on the lid.

AstroPlanner is a good laugh too - press <esc> and speak (!) 'Night Vision On', and the screen dips to dark red. All I need now is a new battery so that I get more than 10 minutes of imaging at a time. And I won't get told off by the bloke next door again I hope.