Annoying way to lose dark adaption

Your alarm goes off. It's 2 am. You look outside, giddy to see steady little pinpoints of light everywhere, just as the clear sky chart told you it would be. You've been clouded in for weeks! You sneak into the kitchen to make coffee before going outside; You've done it so many times you can easily do it in the dark. Your eyes have been shut in the dark house for six hours, so you can make out the tiniest shadows as you move around your kitchen. The smell of fresh coffee fills the air as you open the refrigerator to get the cream...

really?

fresh cream does not spoil in six hours. why isn't the obvious solution here to pour out the cream before you go to bed? pour it into the cup, or into the thermos, and you're done. better, room temperature cream does not cool the coffee as much.

put the cream and coffee in the mug, put the mug in the microwave. all you have to do at 2am is push a button and remove the heated mug with your eyes closed.

heat the hot coffee almost to boiling, put the cream and hot coffee in a thermos. six hours later it will still be very hot.

+1

I like that idea

Ha!
This reminds me of how I learned to drink coffee black: I had a professor who would take all his archaeology students out to the field on cold days to work in the open all day.
Well, you get kind of cold doing that (sort of like observing all night, eh?) and his idea of sweetened coffee with cream was one teaspoon of sugar and one teaspoon of instant creamer in a 1-quart thermos.
Needless to say, ANY hot beverage would have been just fine, and his coffee was, essentially, black.
Thermoses are wonderful things. Make the coffee at 6pm and it'll be hot all night. No refrigerator needed.

Sorry, but if it's 2am and I'm asleep; my alarm is NOT going to go off......

It's pretty hard to get into a refrigerator to rewire it....the walls are filled with hard foam insulation.
An eyepatch works (sort of) but light leaks in around the edges, and going back to the dark with one eye mostly dark adapted and one totally light-zapped challenges the brain......
I'd vote for a thermos made up beforehand, because you can also carry it out for a second hit.
I think the metal-lined construction-grade ones stay hot better, and you don't ever have to hear that heartbreaking sound of glass-and-coffee if you knock it over.......
R

Oh, I was hoping this was a thread on all the various annoying ways to lose your dark adaptation. Not just the microwave refridgerator ways.

Come to think of it, is there a way to lose your dark adaptation that isn't annoying? I'll answer that below, but....

I was out in the National Forest on the side of a road, setting up. I had a drummer's chair out, (really a Tele Vue air chair), a tripod with some strange mechanical device on it (A Vixen GP mount), when the Sherrif's pull in next to me to see what suspicious thing I'm up to. In a technique that probably does increase the safety to law enforcement and the people they interact with, they shine a gazillion lumens flashlight in my eyes. A minute later I'm offering them a look-see but blinking and triping over pebbles.
===

The only non-annoying way I can think of to lose your dark adaptation is if you see a really bright meteor or bolide. Or, comet or Supernova. If any one of those is bright enough to affect your dark adaptation, I want to see it.

LGM

Or..... http://www.beaverbuz.../beaverbuzz.htm
I always keep a can in my cupboard of observing gear. It's also what I pack when overnight camping at star parties.

Ready in seconds and no brewing required. Tasty too.

Bill

I don't get up at 2 a.m.--I stay up until 2 a.m.

Or drink it pure and black.

- Jim

Freeze the coffee on a stick (coffsicle).

Stanley 2-quart Classic. Problem solved---forever. Even works for hot chocolate!

Dark skies.

Jack

I wore an eye patch for about an hour one night as I was preparing to go out and view. I got all my stuff together, flipped up the eye patch to view. Realized I forgot my notepad so I ran back inside and turned on the light blinding my dark adapted eye.

I use this thermos every day:
http://www.amazon.co...ef=oh_detail...
It's great, 12+ hours later your coffee is still hot. It's also very robust compared to other thermoses, you can really knock it around. As you can see it's a little steel tank. Because the design is so simple it's also easy to clean.

I use this thermos every day:

I have a similar one. If I fill it up and don't drink any of it, the tea is still scolding hot 24 hours later! They really are fantastic. It's many years old now, but still going strong. The plug and cup has started to slowly fall apart, though. Never seen spare parts for one, so I figure I just have to get a new one.


Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

It's pretty hard to get into a refrigerator to rewire it....the walls are filled with hard foam insulation.

In my refer, I can drill a hole directly from the outside of the fridge into the back side of the cutout for the door switch. I'll post pics when I do it.

It's pretty hard to get into a refrigerator to rewire it....the walls are filled with hard foam insulation.

In my refer, I can drill a hole directly from the outside of the fridge into the back side of the cutout for the door switch. I'll post pics when I do it.

Red Green would be proud of you. (Please unplug the refrigerator before proceeding.)

It's pretty hard to get into a refrigerator to rewire it....the walls are filled with hard foam insulation.

In my refer, I can drill a hole directly from the outside of the fridge into the back side of the cutout for the door switch. I'll post pics when I do it.

Red Green would be proud of you. (Please unplug the refrigerator before proceeding.)

Ed D

Or drink it pure and black.

- Jim

+1 If you've got good coffee, this is truly the only way to drink it.

It's pretty hard to get into a refrigerator to rewire it....the walls are filled with hard foam insulation.

In my refer, I can drill a hole directly from the outside of the fridge into the back side of the cutout for the door switch. I'll post pics when I do it.

Red Green would be proud of you. (Please unplug the refrigerator before proceeding.)

Only if I use duct tape to attach the switch. ;-)

I have a handy little eye patch from the eye Dr when I got something in my eye. works well.
I also hate it when IDIOTS pull up in their car and sit there with Headlights on, or even turn them on bright to help you see better (true story) ARRRGH glad I sold my guns
when the baby was born!!!!

I don't know how many times I had to check my annoyance if not anger with the next oaf to show up with the headlights ablaze myself. It is obvious to me that non-astronomers just do not know the effect of being nailed with a bright light has on people who are dark adapted, I cannot see anything for several seconds. Everytime they do that, my night vision takes at least 20 or 30 minutes to return. This is why I look for places to observe as FAR away from everyone else as I can, I am reclusive to begin with and there are times when I want to be left alone. An aging and grouchy bear like me is not the most social of creatures.

Taras

It's pretty hard to get into a refrigerator to rewire it....the walls are filled with hard foam insulation.

In my refer, I can drill a hole directly from the outside of the fridge into the back side of the cutout for the door switch. I'll post pics when I do it.

How about a red bulb for the fridge? years ago red bulbs were common in dark rooms for film processing, I bet camera supply stores still have them.
See:
http://www.bhphotovi...tlab_Univers...
Rex

The one annoyance that seems to be prevalent at outreach events of late are the kids wearing sneakers equipped with motion fired high luminosity LED lights.

WOW are those bright to the dark adapted eyes!

Perhaps my most coveted piece of astronomy equipment is a handheld vacuum-insulated thermos. Getting up at 2 am? Planning a long observing run (or any observing for that matter)? Make the coffee and add cream before bedtime and pour into the thermos. Stays hot for hours.

In my case, a red light is a little impractical because the other four people in my house need to see inside the fridge during the day and a bright enough red light might as well be white.

A thermos or leaving the cream out or something... they're great ideas. The problem is that I'd only go to sleep and get up at 2 if the sky was cloudy but forecast to be clear and stable at 2. All too often, despite the predictions, it's not clear or the seeing is horrible, so after looking out the window I just hop back into my warm bed... I'd hate to waste the coffee and I don't want the cream to go bad faster by leaving it out to get warm.

On the special occasion that it does clear as expected, it's easy to make coffee, and besides I need a few minutes to wake up. The only challenge is that darn fridge.

And in a week or two I'll solve that problem

Your alarm goes off. It's 2 am. You look outside, giddy to see steady little pinpoints of light everywhere, just as the clear sky chart told you it would be. You've been clouded in for weeks! You sneak into the kitchen to make coffee before going outside; You've done it so many times you can easily do it in the dark. Your eyes have been shut in the dark house for six hours, so you can make out the tiniest shadows as you move around your kitchen. The smell of fresh coffee fills the air as you open the refrigerator to get the cream...

Learn to drink coffee black when you're about to go out to observe, and that cures the problem.

Absolutely...pure unadulterated coffee. That is how I drink mine.