I’m going to Arizona for the winter and want to do some sightseeing at night. Certain spots are designated blackout locations. I have been shopping for a good red light headlamp to wear at these events, but they all look kinda cheap. Any recs here? Thanks for the help.

  • My suggestion is safe your money. The smallest red flashlight with a red filter & some tissue to dim it further would be sufficient. Bike rear lights are pretty good if you don't want to redneck your own.

    Also when done places say "blackout" they can mean no light at all apart from the dimmest for reading a chart. If you go around with a headlamp (even a red one) on the observing field you may well get shouted at by those trying to image the sky.

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  • I once came up with a decent red flashlight by cutting out a piece of "red Solo cup" to fit under the cover glass. Cheapo option.

    Btw, some small Maglight brand flashlights come with red filters.

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  • Petzl Tikka is pretty much the gold standard. Mine is 12 years old and still going strong. There are like tens of "subspecies" of this model so make sure you pick one that has a red light mode.

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  • I have two celestron flashlights. They are lightweight, come with lanyards, are adjustable in brightness via a simple wheel that operates with gloves no problem and starts very very dim so that you don’t blow your night vision out accidentally.

    Reasonable too. I leave it around my neck, tuck it in to my shirt or jacket if it’s in the way

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  • I just bought a couple of GearLight LED Headlamps on Amazon. White and Red lights, 3 brightness settings and they can blink too, although I have no use for that. Red LED is the way to go, as the light source is truly red. A white light source with a red filter is still not completely red and other wavelengths will leak out to interfere with your dark adaptation (and other people nearby too). I found the red light even on the lowest setting still too bright for what I do, so I layered on some masking tape to dim it down much more.

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  • the problem with a lot of flashlights / headlamps with red lights is that they operate with one button, which makes it super easy to turn on the white light by mistake.

    i like the Olight Pro Clip. it has a lever you can set to the red light, and then use the on-off button without the risk of getting the white light. no need to memorize a morse code sequence of button presses

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  • Do the astronomers’ trick and put some red cellophane over a flashlight end, or paint it in red nail polish. Done

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