Proper lighting can be critical to a good observing session. Obviously, you want things to be as dark as possible but you don't want to destroy valuable equipment by kicking it, or dropping it or losing it in the darkness, either.

This is where red lights come in - the human eye perceives red light more easily than other colors, so at night, you can use a very small amount of red light and see as well as if you had used a bright light of a different color. This is important because by using only a small red light you don't ruin your night vision.

This article covers the basics of designing and building red lights to fit your needs and your equipment.

Why make your own red lights?

Before LEDs became so cheap, working with red lights meant painting, staining or shielding regular light bulbs. This was difficult and inefficient; but these days there are cheap LED lights everywhere - so why bother making your own?

The first reason is that commercial lights are often unsuitable for astronomical use. First, the color is usually wrong. Most of those LED flashlights you see at the check out counter of the supermarket use either white or blue LEDs. Neither is useful at your telescope! Second, they are almost always far too bright for use at a telescope. You regularly see flashlight ads bragging about blinding brightness and multi-mile visibility. Sure, gimme one of those! Sounds like a great way to make friends at the next star party! :rolleyes: