Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:11:37 -0700
Reply-To: Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Subject: Re: Vanagon Winter Survival Kit Question
In-Reply-To: <86476e250910311823if5bbc1cs1c2386d9430bf773@mail.gmail.com>
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My Coleman two-mantle propane lantern is too bright to look at on full. I can sit 20 feet away or better and read a book by it at night. We use it to cook and eat by, if it's dark enough to need it; when we're done with that I either turn it way down or off.
Light pollution in campgrounds is as big a pet peeve with me as generators are with Rocky. I don't drive up to the boonies to feel like I'm under streetlights while sitting by the campfire. We've been in situations where lights two spaces away were casting sharp shadows in our campsite. That's ridiculous. The last time we went the people 'next door' hung Xmas lights under their canopy (they apparently ran them off an aux battery in a diesel pickup). It was fine with me while they were eating and so on, but then they went and sat by their fire with their backs to the lights and left them on for hours. Makes me want to take a BB gun and start plinking away.
Don't even get me started on the idiots that take a truckload of unseasoned wood and try to get the attention of the folks in the space station. Sounds like the opening sequence from 'Saving Private Ryan' and you get to sit there and wonder what you'll try to save and how you'll get out if they actually manage to set the woods on fire.
Cya,
Robert
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Loren Busch
Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 6:23 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Vanagon Winter Survival Kit Question
RE: Lamps and Lighting
All this discussion of lamps, bright and otherwise prompts me to make this
suggestion. For illumination around you camp at night I think you will find
that less is more. Just enough to be comfortable but not so much as to blind
you. Once your eyes become even a little bit accustomed to the dark very
little light is needed. And in fact very bright lamps like the typical
Colman mantle lantern are usually much brighter than needed. And being
blinded by such lamps is even a small hazard when you need to walk away from
the immediate area and it takes your eyes several seconds to begin to
adjust. Try going to a gathering of amateur astronomers some night, a star
party. Any white light, no matter how dim, is strictly forbidden, only low
level red light is permitted. You'll be amazed at what you can see and do
in very low light. And think about how nice it is around a campfire when
illumination levels are really quite low. So next time you are thinking
about trying to illuminate the whole township when camped think about
turning it down a little. I think you'll enjoy the night even more.
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