Lighting-Gallery.net
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: flyoffacliff on June 01, 2015, 07:02:47 PM
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How do you look at bright lights safely without causing eye problems? Do you use a welders mask? Or some type of reflective surface, such as a turned off smartphone screen?
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I do it with the turned off screen, it makes for great viewing of mercury vapor arctubes. I also used my pair of aviators. If you have a busted merc lamp, it'd be better off using a welding mask, arc eye is no laughing matter. I know from experience.
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Yea, I just noticed that recently. I used to just stare at the lights. Probably why I am half blind now. :P
I have never come across a broken HID lamp where the outer envelope with the phosphor as broken, but the arc-tube still works. How dangerous is it? Is it fairly common? I read an article about this happening in a school gymnasium with a broken MH lamp, and the kids got sunburns and arc eye. :(
Also, I have some cheap no-name CFLs with a bad phosphor, and they give me headaches. The CFLs plastic base turned yellow from the UV within 1,000 hours. :o
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Mercury vapor is the worst since they produce lots of short wave UV (which is why u coated fluoros with special glass are used as germicidical lamps.) They do have special lamps (such as Westinghouse lifeguards or durotest safety vapor) that have a filament that will burn up when exposed to air.
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Mercury vapor is the worst since they produce lots of short wave UV
HID are3 not better in that respect, it is in fact the same mercury there...
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Mercury vapors won't warm all the way since the glass insulates it. It isn't as bad as breaking the arc tube itself and inhaling the vapors.
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When they are not warmed up all the way the visible light amount drops a lot, but the UV amount does not drop to the same extent, so the difference you see does not represent the difference in UV output
See that in a warming up mercury lamp : In the beginning it is pink because the phosphor glows brighter than the visible light from the arctube, so there is relatively high UV
I seen broken 125W mercury lamps keep going for many months... I know of one that does righ now and its ben like that for allmost a year, that one is in a posttop lantern with partially smashed bowl so it was still protected from direct contact with rain etc
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Yes but I bet that the UV was terrible on the bowl (assuming that it was plastic).
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It is, but here the sunlight can sometimes compete with the HID in the amount of damage....
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The newer plastic bowls are more resistant to UV. I've seen some old bowls or buckets completely browned from years of exposure.
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The newer plastic bowls are more resistant to UV. I've seen some old bowls or buckets completely browned from years of exposure.
Me too. I have also seen some old ones not brown at all. Weird.
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The newer plastic bowls are more resistant to UV. I've seen some old bowls or buckets completely browned from years of exposure.
Me too. I have also seen some old ones not brown at all. Weird.
some of the older bowls were made of glass as well.
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The newer plastic bowls are more resistant to UV. I've seen some old bowls or buckets completely browned from years of exposure.
Me too. I have also seen some old ones not brown at all. Weird.
some of the older bowls were made of glass as well.
Oh, is there a way to tell by looking at it from a distance?
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If you see it shimmering in the sunlight, on an older model streetlight, chances are it's glass.
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Varies with additives in the plastic
Some additives are added to iumprove UV stability. The type and quantity define how stable "plastic" will be
Other additives (strength and color related) may change it in the other direection. One material where its seen well is PMMA (its not really a "normal" plastic like most others). It is often fairly resistant by itself in the clear form, but if it is white (with some additive), it tends to yellow
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I only have experience with halogen and incandescent lights so UV radiation isn't much of an issue for me. I have a pair of Costa 580 sunglasses designed to reduce glare off of open water that work perfectly for looking directly at bright bulbs and observing the filament and/or halogen capsule without squinting 8)
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Squinting (fast reaction) and pupil size (slow reaction) are ways for the eye to limit the incomiing light. The reaction is to visible light only, but the result is eually affecting all the input, including visible and UV
If your glasses reduce visible light more than they reduce UV (many glasses do !), then in the end you get more UV with the glasses vs without..
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i have transitions sunglasses and i squint, i dont have much else, honestly i just try to avoid staring at the lamps directly and if i do end up staring at a lamp (like a moth sorta lmao), i usually temporarily go blind for about an hour but then my vision comes back seemingly slightly better than before, then it levels out back to normal
i also might correct myself there.... its not like POOF visions gone, it just gets really really dim and hard to see
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i have transitions sunglasses and i squint, i dont have much else, honestly i just try to avoid staring at the lamps directly and if i do end up staring at a lamp (like a moth sorta lmao), i usually temporarily go blind for about an hour but then my vision comes back seemingly slightly better than before, then it levels out back to normal
i also might correct myself there.... its not like POOF visions gone, it just gets really really dim and hard to see
My vision gets really dim for a short time too after looking at a bright light for too long. When I close my eyes, I can see the shape of the illuminated object. Since I wear contacts that cause extra reflection in my eyes, I am extra careful with bright lights, especially the sun. I have blue eyes, which let more light in than brown eyes, and thus are mort sensitive to bright conditions. I use high performance Costa 580 sunglasses.
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welding shields in shade 12 or higher they are also suitable for viewing the sun/eclipse, or use a smart phone camera and view the screen, I have a camera with lots of laser damage but my eyes are fine or if you don't have proper protection, a CD will reflect a large chunk of the light but don't use this for eclipse viewing you will do eye damage and since you can't just stop and buy a new set of eyeballs you better protect the set you have got, don't look at the light ..
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If I were to use a phone camera to view eclipse-would use an OLD phone you don't care about.Prolonged exposure of the camera to sunlight WILL burn the sensors-Like a bug under the magnifying glass!Astronomy and science suppliers sell attachments for telescopes that allow the sun image to be projected onto a screen-this works well esp if you have a telescope-but of course don't try to view the image directly thru the scope-you will become blind!
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You can project a bright thing enlarged onto the wall in a dark room, with nothing but a sheet with hole. I thnk this can work well for viewing an eclipse (+ mirror outside to reflect the Sun towards the window where the sheet with hole is installed)
Big cardboard panel with a small sheet insert cut from a beer can. with the hole in it, would work well
For brigher image you could use a magnifier lens, but then you have to either use a setup of 2 lenses, or be able to change the distance between it and the screen to focus the image. (with the hole the image focus depends only on the size of the hole)
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I tend to use some very dark sunglasses, works ok as long as I don't look for too long in one go. :mv:
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Yep dark sunglasses are a good idea, preferably polarized.
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I wear my polarized Costa sunglasses when I look at my high performance halogen bulbs. Here I am with my Philips 1000 watt IODE lamp, running 120 volts. Even at 120 volts, this 230 volt lamp is brilliantly bright and extremely hot.
I have noticed that many T3 halogen work lamps have a glass shield that both filters out UV rays and contains the bulb fragments if it explodes. I just got a Bayco work lamp that is rated to filter out UV rays from my T3 halogen bulbs.
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Ok it really depends on the light, my friend fired up a 7 kw Xenon short arc and the #12 welding shield is not dark enough for the lamp only a few feet away with a very nice reflector behind it so it forms a very tight beam, you really need a #13 welding shield, or better just don't look at it, and with lights like this you need the full face helmet to go with the shield and a dark shirt so it doesn't reflect to much light behind the helmet...
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Is the 7Kw Xenon light in a projector?The lamp MUST be in an enclosed lamphouse-if this should "let go" as the Xenons sometimes do-you don't want to be in the line of fire.It can KILL you!!!Like a hand grenade!
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Is the 7Kw Xenon light in a projector?The lamp MUST be in an enclosed lamphouse-if this should "let go" as the Xenons sometimes do-you don't want to be in the line of fire.It can KILL you!!!Like a hand grenade!
It's in a sky tracker / spot light, that is designed for that size lamp, but you really shouldn't fire them up inside a house, and the welding mask with the carhartt jacket and gloves will protect you from flying debris should anything go wrong.. But being in to lighting it's hard not to look and the #12 is dark but it was still pretty bright ...
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GOOD-the Xenon bulb is in an enclosed fixture-a searchlight.What do the neighbors say when you fire it up?
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They actually know me, so they don't say anything anymore, they just know I'm playing with some light, and they just look for the smoke now and then they call, I guess I could of turned it to point out the window and lit up there place but I don't have the DMX controller and since it's belt driven I don't want to damage the belts by holding it, so I let it do it's cycle up and down, but I don't think I'll be firing one of those up again inside the house, they really are more an outside use light..
I'm one of those neighbors they hate and love at the same time, between the bright lights, welding, and backyard foundry, I guess the invites to the BBQ and diners, free car repairs, and other handy services make up for the minor annoyances...
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My halogen work lamp that I use for both light and heat will bother my eyes sometimes. The thick glass panel on the lamp filters out UV rays, but the glare from the clear halogen bulb and the reflectors gets tiresome. I try not to look straight at the running T3 halogens without sunglasses.