A Bright Idea

[Jim Koepke]

When we think of our most basic human needs, we often think of food, water, and shelter. But when architecture graduate students Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta were asked to design a product to assist post-earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, they considered the dangerous conditions at night in the tent cities and turned their attention to another critical need: Light.Now everyone’s getting the bright idea: hikers in Yosemite, backpackers in Whistler, and emergency workers in Nepal alike use LuminAID to light their way. Even the reality investment show ABC’s Shark Tank saw the LuminAID vision irresistible, and invited Anna and Andrea on the show for a chance to premiere their product on primetime.

http://luminaid.com/

jtk

[Matt Day]

I saw that Shark Tank episode - very cool product.

[Brian Tymchak]

That is pretty cool. Lots of innovation recently in this area. Another one I saw on a documentary of some sort - GravityLight (http://gravitylight.org/gravitylight)

[Shawn Pixley]

Quite clever!

[John Goodin]

I used something similar while camping on a beach in Mexico. Lit the whole tent up. Necessity is the mother of invention.

[John K Jordan]

I didn't know about this until I saw your message. I bought one from Amazon to try and it is interesting. Smaller than I thought from a picture but the size and amount of light is perfect.

JKJ

[roger wiegand]

Some of go camping in an effort to rediscover the world when it gets dark at night. It's astonishing just how much you can see by starlight if you allow yourself to get properly dark adapted. Not happy at yet more ways to destroy night vision and keep us from seeing the stars. Give us back our night!

http://darksky.org

[John K Jordan]

As an astro buff I agree - the skys here are terrible, much of the light polution is from car dealerships over the hills who pump blinding light into the air all night, every night.

The little rechargable has a very low brightness mode which would be great for outdoor use, especially when the moon and stars are obscured and for an emergency. With the threat of tornadoes here last night we kept several battery-powered lights at hand.

JKJ

[Jim Koepke]

Some of go camping in an effort to rediscover the world when it gets dark at night. It's astonishing just how much you can see by starlight if you allow yourself to get properly dark adapted. Not happy at yet more ways to destroy night vision and keep us from seeing the stars. Give us back our night!

http://darksky.org

My mailbox is about a quarter mile round trip from my door. At night when I am walking out to put a Netflix movie in the mail for pickup the next day I love to stop and look up at the night sky. My night vision is pretty good, but not good enough to see every trip hazard along the way. We do have some light pollution from across the river. On a clear night I can still see a good swath of the Milky Way overhead. If I know my batteries are low I will often carry a back up light just incase.



With the threat of tornadoes here last night we kept several battery-powered lights at hand.

You might also want a couple of white paper bags:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?238888-So-What-If-the-Power-is-Out

jtk

[John K Jordan]

...I love to stop and look up at the night sky. My night vision is pretty good, but not good enough to see every trip hazard along the way. We do have some light pollution from across the river. On a clear night I can still see a good swath of the Milky Way overhead...

Nice, I have never seen the Milky Way here! I use an 8" telescope and occasional binoculars. Two recent finds: one, I have night vision binoculars for checking the pastures and around the farm at night. Pointed them at the sky one day and wow, the image amplification, although the quality is poor, lets me see far more stars than with normal binoculars. We even held an iPhone up to the eyepiece and got the first iPhone astro photograph of the Andromeda galaxy I've ever seen!

Second, I recently bought Canon 10x42 L glass image stabilized binoculars - besides the obvious utility for day use looking at the sky and moon in particular is incredible - push the stabilizer button and it's like mounting the binocs on a tripod. These things are heavy but well worth the weight.

I live on 27 acres and often walk the farm at night - I know the 1/4 mile mailbox route! I often walk without light but when I hear a noise close to me I'd like to know for sure if it is my barn cat or a skunk. I have acquired and used many different flashlights and my hands-down favorite is the Fenix LD22. It has an extremely low power mode that is perfect for getting around without wiping out the night vision. It also has some very bright modes that work well as a spot light to check on the llamas and horses across the fields. The thing is tiny compared to most and uses 2 AA batteries (a big plus) which last for many months of use. The switch is done the "right" way, with a soft-push momentary on and a click on. But best of all, it has a separate mode switch and doesn't force you to go through a series of modes every time you use it to get the one you want - I will NEVER knowingly buy another flashlight like that!

JKJ