If you do night sky observing or astrophotography, you learn that your eyes adapt to the night sky, but bright lights quickly thwart the vision. Using red lighting is suitable for seeing objects and retaining the night vision. Use a clear plexiglass sheet over a laptop screen to achieve a night-sky user friendly interface.
If using a laptop during a session at night, some software tools have night settings—changing white background to dark, and text to red. The user can vision-adapt to the night sky or continue to not have night vision disturbed. Other nearby astronomers can also be retain their night vision.
Our rather old and lower-end laptop has limited capabilities for night sky adaptations. The keys don't have red displays. The astronomy software tools are not commercially developed specialized packages, but open-source tweak-it-yourself tools.
Our Laptop Screen Fix—Red Overlaying
We picked the clear red plexiglass (details farther down, more elaboration in the YouTube video). The minimal fix would have been to order the best-dimensions pre-cut sheet and simply lay it over the screen.
With an eye for frugality, we trimmed excess height, saving a piece for possible future project(s). With consideration for secure fastening, then drilled small holes for shoelacing the larger piece to the laptop screen. View the video for guidelines on our overlay fix for the laptop screen.
Laptop Screen Overlay Candidates
Online, we researched getting a clear red overlay for placing in front of the laptop screen during astrophotography. Ideas for See-through red screening included the following:
- Red cellophane that florists use
- Acrylic sheets from Michael's and Hobby Lobby
- Acetate (polypropylene) sheets at Michael's
- Rubylith (photographic plastic)
- Red tail-light tape
- Clear red plexiglass
After consideration, most of the items have downsides, which I cover farther down the article. First, the winner!
Clear Red Plexiglass
The fix we chose was a clear red plexiglass from Canal Plastics Center in NY—"Red Transparent Acrylic Sheet" ($3.68 for 6" x 12" x 1/8" initial offering)
Also known as plexiglass, lucite, or perspex, acrylic is a popular and versatile plastic for many applications. It is a common substitute for glass as it is crystal clear, lighter, more shatter resistant and easy to work with. Acrylic sheets can be laser cut or saw cut, as well as machined with routers, drills and sanders.
The webpage provides good pricing info for the multiple precut dimensions and thicknesses. (We picked 12 x 18 for laptop fit.) Other interactive webpage options included custom dimensions, holes, edge finishings, and shipping priorities.
A Close Candidate Red Plastic, But No Cigar
"Lesnlok Red Acrylic Sheets - 1/8" Thick, ..."
Translucent red plexiglass red acrylic,with 2 pieces of red acrylic sheet,This acrylic resin has excellent optical stability and uniform thickness.
The term translucent nudged us away, along with two negative reviews that indicated shortcomings of using the product.
The No-go Reds
The other red transparent items under consideration were food for thought, but didn't seem suitable enough.
Red Cellophane Wrap, Used By Florists
It took some doing to find out what the item was called. Wound up with reasonable finds when googling "Cellophane wrapping paper for floral arrangements" and "floral arrangement red transparent wrapping mylar sheets". AI showed reasonable info for the product—"red transparent wrapping mylar sheets, often called red cellophane wrap"
An Amazon find further helped with info—"Vanhench Red Cellophane Wrapping Paper, ...". Color and transparency were winning points, however, the product looked too flimsy and scrunchy.
Acrylic Sheets from Michael's and Hobby Lobby, Acetate (polypropylene) Sheets at Michael's
These products are bundled with additional color sheets and tend to be smaller than laptop screen sizes. It didn't look feasible to buy package deals to obtain a onesie-twosie (red) item.
Rubylith, Used in Photography Masking
In the distant past, I used rubylith for printed circuit board artwork layout, particularly analog circuitry. Technology has long made manual layout obsolete; however, photographers and artists still buy the product.
Snippet description from "Rubylith"Rubylith consists of two films sandwiched together. The bottom layer is a clear polyester backing sheet; the top layer is a translucent, red (ruby) coloured sheet. The top layer can be cut and peeled away from the bottom layer.
Idea discarded—
- Color translucency reduces clarity and readability of screen info.
- Colored sheet could be easily damaged, letting light bleed through and reducing effectiveness for user.
Red taillight Lens Repair Tape
The tape comes in about 2" width rolls. We considered taping a small piece onto a scrap piece of 7 mil clear mylar to test transparency. Even if the small sample looked OK, idea of pulling and taping SEVERAL aligned rows was not appealing. Also, transparency might less than optimal because of tape's intended use on taillights.
Advisory Webpages for Buying, Cutting, and Drilling Plexiglass
- Canal Plastic Center "Red Transparent Acrylic Sheet" (pre-cut 12" x 18" x 1/8" sheet)
- "Cut Plexiglass, Acrylic, Plastics with Draw Knife Scoring - Cheap, Fast", 1:49
My gist: Draw knife, thin plexiglass, main points-draw knife several times on firmly held-down plexiglass (using metal straight edge), then snap. - "How to easily drill plexiglass, lexan and acrylic sheets", 3:10
My gist: Clamp plexiglass to scrap board, then use step drill or twist drill with tape protection and lubricant. Additional drilling considerations--slowness, light pressure. - "Simple Solutions: Tips for Drilling Through Plexiglass", 0:44
My gist: Sandwich plexiglass between two layers of quarter-inch plywood ... mark the holes ... line plexiglass with plywood ... drill right through all three layers.
Related: Keyed-in text and image of PLASKOLITE Plastic Cutter for cutting plexiglass.
Want additional astronomy-themed articles? Click for "astro topic" search results in my blog.
