Hello everyone.
One of my other hobbies, besides fooling around off the road, is night sky photography. It's one of those things that, as many of you know, gets easier with less light pollution. So what better way to get far away from civilization and admire more distant gas balls than in the TJ? Well a couple fancy lights to brighten up a night trail should make that a walk in the park. But you know, the hardest part besides getting somewhere dark is getting all the equipment (tripod, shutter release, camera, etc) set up in the dark. A headlamp makes this easier, but what if I used my Jeep's lights to illuminate the darkness? Then I'd lose my night vision. Because white light is terrible that way.
So I started looking for red aftermarket lights. Those are less terrible on night vision. And boy, unless I just don't know where to look (very likely), there are not a lot of those. Plenty of LED ones, which I figure might color change to red. But they are expensive, and not quite a fit for what I'm looking for. There's also the idea of buying standard white lights and fitting red filters over them. This sounds great to me, as it allows for them to be cheap and still function as intended without the filters as well. But I haven't any idea how to make, find, or fit such red covers. Unless I make a new friend who owns a 3D printer and is much smarter than me.
So my question is this: how the heck do I get red trail lights to save my night vision?
One of my other hobbies, besides fooling around off the road, is night sky photography. It's one of those things that, as many of you know, gets easier with less light pollution. So what better way to get far away from civilization and admire more distant gas balls than in the TJ? Well a couple fancy lights to brighten up a night trail should make that a walk in the park. But you know, the hardest part besides getting somewhere dark is getting all the equipment (tripod, shutter release, camera, etc) set up in the dark. A headlamp makes this easier, but what if I used my Jeep's lights to illuminate the darkness? Then I'd lose my night vision. Because white light is terrible that way.
So I started looking for red aftermarket lights. Those are less terrible on night vision. And boy, unless I just don't know where to look (very likely), there are not a lot of those. Plenty of LED ones, which I figure might color change to red. But they are expensive, and not quite a fit for what I'm looking for. There's also the idea of buying standard white lights and fitting red filters over them. This sounds great to me, as it allows for them to be cheap and still function as intended without the filters as well. But I haven't any idea how to make, find, or fit such red covers. Unless I make a new friend who owns a 3D printer and is much smarter than me.
So my question is this: how the heck do I get red trail lights to save my night vision?