Making your phone / tablet / Laptop red light for observing.

[FrankRyanJr]

With the prevalence of controlling your scope via your cell phone (genuinely I'm not a fan of this. I like the tactile push button feel of a good old hand controller!) making sure the device doesn't play havoc with your dark adaption is key.

I know that you can set phones / apps to 'night mode' but what I've found is it's never perfect and sometimes depending on the device there is an indicator light or power light that does the damage.
I went old school on the problem and it's been working great.. for years. 🙂

It took me a while to really appreciate just how powerful and really, necessary fully dark adapted eyes are for observing! We spend al this money on gear / EP's etc but sometimes forget that the most crucial optical instrument we own are sitting right um... above...our noses. 

So I made a 5 min vid that may help if you're inclined to use these kinds of devices while observing. 

https://youtu.be/fdzmElPm8C4?si=pCc4pLzyqHlSoGdc

Edited October 11, 2023 by FrankRyanJr
Broken link

[Owmuchonomy]

The video appears to have been taken down. For my iPhone I just triple click the side button and it goes into red mode.  The Synscan App also does it automatically.

[FrankRyanJr]

Sounds great. Does it totally 'red light' the whole phone. 

[John]

When observing really faint stuff under dark skies I've found that ANY light source, no matter how faint or what colour it is, impacts how deep I can see.

Even an illuminated watch face quite a few metres distant stood out like a sore thumb a few years back during one really dark night at the SGL star party.

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by John

[Elp]

Wear some over eyeglasses red safety glasses, all light entering your eyes until you take them off will be red. Not sure how effective it is as here any glint away from an eyepiece gets delightfully blasted with LP direct or reflective, but trying them during the day, removing them makes your vision temporarily light over sensitive.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Elp

[Stu]

5 hours ago, FrankRyanJr said:

Sounds great. Does it totally 'red light' the whole phone. 

On iPhones it does, yes. You can reduce the white point too so it’s very dim and red. It’s in Settings/Accessibility/Display and text size. You can make calls and switch between apps without any bright white showing.

Just to say, whilst this is effective, I still think a film such as the one you showed is likely better at reducing the brightness output as even the black on phones leaks some light.

I’m experimenting with a Boox Ultra Tab C with SkySafari. This is an e-ink tablet which can have the backlight turned off completely. The challenge is how to read it with the dimmest possible red light source. The standard screen is quite reflective so I’ve added a film which makes it much less so. Yet to be used in anger.

Unfortunately, much of the time there is still a fair amount of LP around so in these conditions I think observing with a phone switched to red doesn’t affect things much. It’s only when under a properly dark sky that it makes a difference in my opinion.

[DirkSteele]

I use the triple click on my iPhone to avoid white light when shutting the app or unlocking the phone but agree with @John, if you are pushing the limits of visibility, no amount of light of any colour (no matter how dim) is doing you any favours.  Red is just less damaging, rather than not damaging.

 

I did make a sleeve for my iPad years ago in Blue Peter style.  I managed to get superglue on my finger tips.  This was quite a problem as I use a finger print scanner at work to use my financial terminal and it made my finger print unreadible (so the crime movies are right!).  I had to call the supplier from the centre of the trading floor and explain why I needed an unlock code for the day.  As you might imagine, there was an eruption of laughter across the floor when I explained I had glue on my fingers! 😄