Blue or Red

[Wahoo]

which would be a better light for night fishing,Blue or Red LED's, the light would be set up under the canopy, any thoughts???

daz

[finga]

blue's supposed to be the go in the water and red is good for night vision under the canopy.
:)

[-spiro-]

there was a thread about this a couple of months ago.. i think it was under led lights...try a search on that

[Wahoo]

thanks Finga thats what i thought

spiro, my add blocker is also stoping me do a search, but i do recall a thread on here a while ago, thanks


Daz

[FNQCairns]

Yes red is the colour, Daz if you find a good supplier of quality red ones don't keep it a secret:)

cheers fnq

[Wahoo]

Yes red is the colour, Daz if you find a good supplier of quality red ones don't keep it a secret:)

cheers fnq


no worries Scott, i will get around to it this week, if i do grab something i'll try it out, will let you know how it goes

Daz

[CreelReaper]

I do believe that red is indeed the better color. BUT!! Isn't red recognised as a navigational colour???? i.e. port/red starboard/green. Would it be confusing for other boaties bearing down on you after dark. It might be considerd that you are underway and therefore open a legal can of worms. Would the water police book you for displaying a navigational 'light' when anchored??

Shane

[Noelm]

no, Red is fine legaly! it all depends on what you want the light for, if it is to fish and tie on hooks and stuff, then a White (or close to it) will be far better, Red is for when you do not want to impare your night vision when (say) under way, it does not really give a great light to tie on hooks or cut bait and stuff, as long as you have your regulation all round white light on when anchored, you could have a strobe light and have a disco if you like! it will still be lagal.

[webby]

Have been using red for a number of years, some refer to it as the best little whore house on the water;D

[finding_time]

Wahoo

Mate i just installed a whole series of leds under the gunnel for fishing, best few hours i've ever spent! being under the gunnel there in no ones eye's you can still see all around the boat and de hooking on the floor is a breeze so is rerigging!

Also being at floor level doesn't effect your vision away from the boat so you can see other vessels moving about! The old cabin lights on the targa bar were terrible for this as any vessel in front of our boat was as good as invisible!

I know it's not what you were asking but i really would look at putting your deck lighting under the gunnel!


ian

[Roughasguts]

I use to fly aircraft at night using red cock pit lights, or map lights.
So heres the warning any thing red on a map or chart will not show up it's invisible. :-/ So don't cut yourself you won't know your bleeding to death;D

Personally I think lights under the gunall would be a better option.

[Pirate_Pete_Tas]

IF you look at all the newer style Fluro's, Car head lights etc they all have a blue tinge to them as blue makes the human eye open up more letting more light in so things appear brighter.

If you want to light the water up you would be better off using the blue coloured lights as water absorbs the bule part of the spectrum first so the more blue you put into the water the more apparent light you will get.

Having said that the red lights have been used for donkeys ages for good night vision.

[lusco]

just to put my 2 bobs worth in i went and purchased off Jaycar Electronics a cold compessed fluro tubes that are encased, they actually sell them for the purpose of lighting up the hard drive unit of a computer.$20.
Mounted them in the side cut out of the hull out of the way of everything lights up the boat like daylight and all from the flick of a switch right next to the seat i am fishin out of.

[ronnien]

not to long ago i was faced with the same problem, i bought a water proof led strip light for the inside of the boat. it is fixed to the front of the console & is not as high up as the sides are, this keeps the light inside the boat, so if you need to see what is around you at night you can do so with ease & dont have light hitting your eyes & blinding you. now for the color i used see through blue contact (works great), after reading this thread i will now get some red clear contact & try it. but honestly i dont think it will make much of a diff.
my missus wants a dark purple ( wonder if that would be better than blue or red).

ron.

[FNQCairns]

What little I remember, the eyes have 2 different types of receptors, one of these is the night type receptor, this one takes something like 30 or 40 min to adapt the chemicals associated with it and allow good night time vision. The moment the other type of receptors are stimulated with white light the time to good nigh vision starts all over again.

Because night vision when it is working is not ruined by red the intensity can be very low, too low to see anything fine well around 5 minutes after white light but easy to see 30min after white light.

I suspect red must be in the spectrum that suits these receptors the best, other colours probably work just not as well, whats next to red in light frequency??

cheers fnq

[finding_time]

I think this is what you were chasing Fnq!

In biological night vision, molecules of rhodopsin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodopsin) in the rods of the eye (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye) undergo a change in shape as light is absorbed by them. Rhodopsin is the chemical that allows night-vision, and is extremely sensitive to light. Exposed to white light, the pigment immediately bleaches, and it takes about 30 minutes to regenerate fully, but most of the adaptation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation_(eye)) occurs within the first five or ten minutes in the dark. Rhodopsin in the human rods is insensitive to the longer red wavelengths (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelengths) of light, so many people use red light to preserve night vision as it will not deplete the eye's rhodopsin stores in the rods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_cell) and instead is viewed by the cones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_cell).
Many animals have a tissue layer called the tapetum lucidum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum) in the back of the eye (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye) that reflects light back through the retina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retina), increasing the amount of light available for it to capture. This is found in many nocturnal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnal) animals and some deep sea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sea) animals, and is the cause of eyeshine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum). Humans do not have a tapetum lucidum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapetum_lucidum) and, moreover, only 10% of the light that enters the human eye falls on photosensitive parts of the retina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retina).[citation needed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)] An animal's ability to see in low light (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_light) levels may be similar to what humans see when using first or perhaps second generation image intensifiers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_intensifier)[citation needed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)].
Large size of the eye, and large size of the pupil relative to the eye, also contribute to night vision.

Ian

[Wahoo]

Wahoo

Mate i just installed a whole series of leds under the gunnel for fishing, best few hours i've ever spent! being under the gunnel there in no ones eye's you can still see all around the boat and de hooking on the floor is a breeze so is rerigging!

Also being at floor level doesn't effect your vision away from the boat so you can see other vessels moving about! The old cabin lights on the targa bar were terrible for this as any vessel in front of our boat was as good as invisible!

I know it's not what you were asking but i really would look at putting your deck lighting under the gunnel!


ian

cheers Ian, yes i have leds under the gunnel and are great, was thinking more for a light if i need to make a cuppa or cook something up, but did'nt really want to go for a white light

there has been some great feedback on this topic, thank you all

Daz