Headband LED torch with Red Light

[Tim]

Just been to Go Outdoors to get some bits in preparation for the upcoming starparties.

They have headband LED torches with red light setting for just £3.99. They take 3 x AAA batteries. The LED's tilt, and the single red LED will light the floor enough to walk by at night.

Seemed a good price that.

[steve_bham]

bargin, im bringing one i use for hiking has a red plastic plate that flips over the LEDS, and that was 30 quid so for a head torch for under 4 quid well worth it.

[Tim]

This one has a two way switch, one way = white light, the other is red light.

[Paxo]

Not even the Argos 'laminated book of dreams' can do better than that. One word of caution though Tim, remember which way the switch is for Red, it doesn't take much to annoy yourself (and others) if you switch it the wrong way!!

Steve..

[Tim]

Thats for sure Steve. At my first star party I inadvertantly opened my car, which put white puddle lights on at 1am. The death threats have just about petered out now.....

Since then I tape everything up with red lane marker tape from maplins, and will probably do the same with the torch.

[Whippy]

Just been to Go Outdoors to get some bits in preparation for the upcoming starparties.

They have headband LED torches with red light setting for just £3.99. They take 3 x AAA batteries. The LED's tilt, and the single red LED will light the floor enough to walk by at night.

Seemed a good price that.

Good job sir , I picked mine up from a garage near Southend.

Tony..

[albedo0.39]

Top tip - I picked up a couple of red back lights for a pushbike from Poundland. Cost was (er...) £1 !

[brianb]

It's certainly a good price, but ...

the single red LED will light the floor enough to walk by at night.

.... way too bright!

[Tim]

well there's not much point having a torch that has no use I suppose. It's hardly a floodlight, just enough to see steps, holes, hedgehogs etc.

Most of the red led type torches at star parties have never interfered with my night vision, its the more usual car driving through that does that.

[Paxo]

My experience with these single LED headband torches is that they only light a couple of steps away at the most, and then you usually have to angle them downover to get them to do that.

Steve..

[Andrew*]

is it this one?

Boyz Toys Mini LED Headlight - from GO Outdoors.co.uk

Doesn't say anything about a red LED, but it looks just like the energizer one that does have a red - yes, nice price. Will order some extras...

Cheers

Andrew

[Tim]

That's the fella Andrew. They say 3 settings. One of them is "OFF"

[brianb]

They say 3 settings. One of them is "OFF"

Maybe you don't get my drift.

For hillwalking at night you want a white LED which is bright enough to show the ground well at 10 paces. For astronomy you want a red LED, preferably deep red (no output at shorter wavelengths than 650 nm) and you want the output adjustable, from a level where you are just barely see the ground to a level that just allows you to read white paper charts etc. when held about 10 inches away. In fact the "hands free" usefulness of the head torch comes from the chart reading bit, a brighter hand-held torch (still red LED of course) is perfectly OK for trippage avoidance when moving around, finding things etc.

I've never actually found a satisfactory (for astronomy) head torch. I'm using a modified hillwalking torch, just the red "emergency" LED which is a standard 3mm type, covered with a Wratten 29 filter _and_ a density 1.8 (64x) neutral density filter ... and I feel it's still marginally on the bright side.

[profees]

Paint them with Nail Varnis work a treat. not tape to fall off then. and add extra coates if its still too bright.

[Tim]

Quite useful Brian, I guess for visual observers the devil is in the detail.

[adamsp123]

Blimey I hope the light police are not going to start measuring the output wavelength of our red torches/headlamps

I thought as I have leccy I would bring a 500watt security lamp along, so long as nobody moves it won't be a problem

[brianb]

Blimey I hope the light police are not going to start measuring the output wavelength of our red torches/headlamps

Don't need "light police" the rhodopsin in the rods of your eyes will measure the wavelength for you. Light > 650nm wavelength does not detach rhodopsin from the rods therefore does not interfere with night vision.

I thought as I have leccy I would bring a 500watt security lamp along, so long as nobody moves it won't be a problem

So long as you don't mind me bringing a 500MJ pulsed laser to drill holes through your security light. It'll be infra red so no-one will get dazzled, just cut in half if they get in the way

[adamsp123]

Don't need "light police" the rhodopsin in the rods of your eyes will measure the wavelength for you. Light > 650nm wavelength does not detach rhodopsin from the rods therefore does not interfere with night vision.

So long as you don't mind me bringing a 500MJ pulsed laser to drill holes through your security light. It'll be infra red so no-one will get dazzled, just cut in half if they get in the way

LOL bit late if it turns out to be wavelength shorter than 650nm wandering about blinded saying that wasn't 650 plus!

Pah! a wee laser, I will bring the cannon from the death star with me.

[stev74]

Just been to Go Outdoors to get some bits in preparation for the upcoming starparties.

They have headband LED torches with red light setting for just £3.99. They take 3 x AAA batteries. The LED's tilt, and the single red LED will light the floor enough to walk by at night.

Seemed a good price that.

Hi All,

I thought this was a great price as well so I went to order one from they're website then I noticed the £5.95 carriage charge so total price would be £9.94!! I checked for the nearest store and it turns out there's only one in Scotland so not worth the journey for me. They only have 15 stores with none in wales so there maybe quite a few SGL members not close enough.

So with that in mind I checked Argos they have a good range of headlights also there's a better chance of living near one. They do have cheap hadlights but they come with only a flashing red LED. The Energizer range looks good though they have:

1. 4 LED Headlight 3 white 1 red LED with 30hr runtime £9.99

Buy Energizer 4 LED Headlight. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for .

2. 7 LED Headlight 5 white 2 red with 20hr runtime £11.75

Buy Energizer Advanced 7 LED Headlight. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for .

Basically if you live near a Go Outdoors £3.99 is a great price for a Headlight. If like me you don't but live near an Argos then I think you'd be better spending your tenner on the product rather than £5.95 on carriage. Hope this helps. I've reserved the £11.75 light so when I get it I'll post a quick review on this thread.

Cheers

Steve

[stev74]

Hi, All

I picked up the 7 LED Energizer Headlight and got a chance to use at earlier this week. It basically has 4 settings which are:

1. Night vision 2 LED red 30hrs runtime.

2. Spot 3 LED white 21hrs runtime.

3. Flood 2 LED white 30hrs runtime.

4. Spot & Flood 5 LED 16hrs runtime.

It also tilts to different angles so you can see the ground directly below you or further out. So with the red light on I found it great when setting up and taking down the scope I was able to do this quicker with both hands free. I'm still quite new to all this and only recently got my scope with an EQ-5 mount. So after I set up I just hung the light from the counter wieghts and was able to see all the bits on the mount that I was needing to use. Instead of fumbling around in the dark which was getting a bit frustrating.

There is a couple of drawbacks though, looking directly at the red LED's it did seem really bright and left a very slight after-image. Not sure how people would react at a star party maybe the cheaper Energizer headlight with the 1 red LED would be better. Or you could use red nail polish to dim it down a bit. Also there is only 1 button so you press it once and the red LED's come on first eveytime which is good. To switch it off though you have to go through the other 3 white light modes which at a star party would be putting your life in danger I'd think!!

So over all it's great for back garden observing although the neighbours may look at you a bit funny. At a star party you'd need to be careful and definitely switch it off under maybe a thick jacket or something so no white light escapes.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[The Warthog]

I bought a headlamp this spring, for about $20, a Petzl which has a red lens supplied with it. In practice it turned out to be more orange than red even at the dimmest of the three settings. Some of my friends objected to it so I stopped using it and decided not to bring it again, but just to use it at home.

Last week I was in my local Home Depot, and picked up a kit with three white LED flashlights, and two headlamps with two white and one red LED. It has a slide switch which goes right for red, and left for white, and although I don't find the red LED very bright, it is truly red and good enough for dark-adapted eyes, even mine. The kit cost me $15. Sounds like the same ones that TJ found. Cheap at twice the price.