Celestron 93588 Astro Night Vision Flashlight, Black

I bought this light for viewing coral and fish in my reef aquarium at night. Supposedly red light is better for looking at aquariums occupants and less stressful for the fish.It works well because of the dimming feature.It appears to be cheaply made but certainly did not fall apart as suggested in some of the other reviews I read regarding this product.

This is a cheaply made light, but as long as you understand what you are getting, it works well for its job of keeping your dark adaptation.What I like:* You can adjust the brightness. The amount of light you need to get your bearings on a sketch/log or to look at a star map is very very low. You can turn it up to max when you are packing up and realize that you are missing that eyepiece endcap.* It is not head-mounted. - I have an irrational hatred for head mounted lamps that look dim in daylight when they are tested them but to dark adapted eyes are blindingly bright searchlights blasting around the observing area as their owners move their heads about.* If you hang it from your neck the light points down - less chance for you to be the person above.* There is no way to accidentally go in to white light mode. This helps prevent me from accidentally being "that person" on the field. I sometimes take one or 2 of my kids observing with me - they always get a light that can only do red.What I don't like, but there is a cheap solution for:* The light cast from this is not diffused at all. If you are trying to see something to draw this light will put 2 harsh crescents on your paper that will be very bright - while the area right next to the lights will be hard to see. The solution is to put a piece of Matte Finish Scotch Tape over the lens. This diffused the light enough to make this my goto light.What I worry about:* The little plastic loop that attaches the string to the light is just sitting there looking like it is going to break.I own 3 of these (so that I can find them and so that guests can have a light). I also own the little Orion key-chain light (to bright for me), the Rigel Systems Starlite Mini (remarkably similar to this light, cough) and an Energizer headlamp (If you decide to use a headlamp, go ahead and disable the white LEDs so that you don't accidentally turn them on and consider adding a higher powered resistor to dim the lamp. Also, please don't leave the thing on when you go talk to somebody...).

I purchased this item despite the many negative reviews, and I don't regret the purchase at all. There are some facts you should be aware of when purchasing this light.1) This is the most basic understanding anyone should have when purchasing any modern product. No process is perfect, and sometimes what you get is imperfect or DOA. It did not happen to me in this particular instance, but it may happen to you regardless of how much you have spent on a product, or its country of origin.2) This is not a "cheaply made" product. The bulk of it is thick plastic, but some of the other mechanisms are thinner. Two plastic clips lock the front cap in place, and the lens is firmly adhered into the cap. It's unlikely that the lens would pop out unless the unit was mishandled in a rather extreme way. I don't see the lens popping out while the cap is fixed to the unit, simply because the portal at the front of the cap is much smaller than the lens. Outside of smashing the lens, that lens is not coming out of the front of the cap. It's equally unlikely that the lens popped out through the rear of the cap because of adhesives, and two pieces of plastic that bar its passage. Outside of errors during multiple stages of production, mishandling on the part of the courier, or mishandling on the part of the user, I don't see how the lens or front cap could be just falling off as others have claimed.3) Another user complained that the switch could only turn the unit on/off and would not dim. I saw how this could occur, and it stems from the odd design of the unit. Inside the plastic shell is a circuit board, on top of which lay the two LEDs with a 9V battery at the very end like a caboose. It is simple to replicate the dimming issue if you do not replace the circuit board assembly as directed in the instructions(during, say, a battery change). The circuit board is meant to lay on a tiny spacer, and if it is slipped underneath the spacer, the dimming mechanism will not work properly. To prevent or fix this issue, simply follow the manufacturer provided directions to remove the interior assembly, and when you try to insert it back make sure to hold the assembly as close to the top of the unit as possible. You will know that you have the correct alignment by the function of the light switch, and the presence of a small space underneath the circuit board. My dimmer switch worked perfectly at the beginning, but I was able to replicate and fix this issue as previously described. It should be noted, that if you do not insert the interior assembly exactly as it extracts, it may fail to extract itself using the light switch in the future. Again, this stems from its odd design.To conclude, this is a well-functioning, and cost-effective unit. It performs exactly as described, is well manufactured, and its plastic shell is surprisingly rugged. The design is odd, and a couple of quirks arise from that, but reading the instructions and handling it correctly will prevent most issues with the unit. So, $12 altogether was a fair price.

It is fine as long as it continues to work but even then, replacing the battery is unintuitive. You basically have to take the front off and then remove all of the guts in order to get to the battery. After 6 months, the switch/potentiometer stopped working in the sense that you couldn't turn it off, but you could still adjust the light. This would be more or less the perfect get-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night light if it were better designed, and priced $5 more to cover the improvements.

This is the only red LED flashlight that just has a volume knob for the brightness, the simplistic design is wonderful. you do not want bright red lights so this provides that dim low battery red keychain light vibe that just works the best for late night astronomy. plus is says Celestron on it.