LightSward
Flashlight Enthusiast
My tribute and a temporary substitute for the 60 inch WWII carbon arc searchlight, for anyone with limited space for storage, (light as seen can hang in closet).
This is an excellent design after many experiments. Someday if I have the room, I'd like to get a GE or Sperry, but for now this will work.:
Excited Law enforcement officers informed me they could see it many miles out on their patrol and just had to come by and see it, since they knew no businesses are out this far.
Big learning experience. I built this 50 inch Monster reflector six years ago and sort of didn't do much because it needed a very bright bulb to do it justice. Dimmer bulbs just barely made abeam. This thing took the light a and shot it into the night sky. For ease of transport, storage with ease of extraction, I have decided to make this my big light for now. The 72 inch is so big, I had to partially disassemble it just to store the pieces. For now the 50 inch MONSTER will be the big dominant light until I get a shop where I won't drive my neighbors crazy. Have to decommission things a little until I can get into a production facility.
This thing is "AWESOME" Had kind of shelved this light in favor of more efficient reflector designs. This set up allows for less light to be collected from bulb, but with a much longer focal length, the light travels further in a more parallel beam configuration. Beam had the effect of looking somewhat like a laser and was hard to tell from which direction it was coming from when beam aimed near horizon.
50 inch Searchlight MONSTER was shelved for a few years while I was waiting to secure a 4,000 watt HMI 385,000 lumen light source. It is a good substitute for the 60 inch WWII searchlights that need much loving care to keep going. This 50 inch MONSTER will help keep the big light legacy going well into the 21st century and beyond. The beautiful beam is a nice painting to a glorious night sky. Photo from a yard or two away.
Photo taken behind MONSTER showing the beam traveling several miles.
Photo taken from a block away
Photos taken a few blocks away.
Photo from a block away. Beam paints a nice color in the night sky. Turquoise blue color looks nice.
Photos taken around and from a few hundred feet distance.
Photo from a block away. Walking way from searchlight, the beam appears to follow. Aimed near the horizon, people couldn't tell which direction it was coming from...nice narrow beam compared to my other searchlights.
The beautiful beam is a nice painting to a glorious night sky. Photo from directly beneath the beam, next to searchlight.
Photo from near mail boxes, block away...300 feet...
Some good views from a block away...several hundred feet. Couldn't go any where with the crowds coming to see. Police almost said they'd stay and watch while I drove around to take photos.
Some of these composites were hard to align with the camera tripod. Software to straighten the photos was unavailable.
Photo from a block away.
Photo from a block away.
Photo from a block away.
Photos showing beam traveling overhead. Laser like look, hard to tell direction beam came from when aimed near horizon.
Photo from a block away. Beam paints a nice color in the night sky. Turquoise blue color looks nice.
Photo from behind searchlight.
I'll get back to posting on this shortly.
This is an excellent design after many experiments. Someday if I have the room, I'd like to get a GE or Sperry, but for now this will work.:
Excited Law enforcement officers informed me they could see it many miles out on their patrol and just had to come by and see it, since they knew no businesses are out this far.
Big learning experience. I built this 50 inch Monster reflector six years ago and sort of didn't do much because it needed a very bright bulb to do it justice. Dimmer bulbs just barely made abeam. This thing took the light a and shot it into the night sky. For ease of transport, storage with ease of extraction, I have decided to make this my big light for now. The 72 inch is so big, I had to partially disassemble it just to store the pieces. For now the 50 inch MONSTER will be the big dominant light until I get a shop where I won't drive my neighbors crazy. Have to decommission things a little until I can get into a production facility.
This thing is "AWESOME" Had kind of shelved this light in favor of more efficient reflector designs. This set up allows for less light to be collected from bulb, but with a much longer focal length, the light travels further in a more parallel beam configuration. Beam had the effect of looking somewhat like a laser and was hard to tell from which direction it was coming from when beam aimed near horizon.
50 inch Searchlight MONSTER was shelved for a few years while I was waiting to secure a 4,000 watt HMI 385,000 lumen light source. It is a good substitute for the 60 inch WWII searchlights that need much loving care to keep going. This 50 inch MONSTER will help keep the big light legacy going well into the 21st century and beyond. The beautiful beam is a nice painting to a glorious night sky. Photo from a yard or two away.
Photo taken behind MONSTER showing the beam traveling several miles.
Photo taken from a block away
Photos taken a few blocks away.
Photo from a block away. Beam paints a nice color in the night sky. Turquoise blue color looks nice.
Photos taken around and from a few hundred feet distance.
Photo from a block away. Walking way from searchlight, the beam appears to follow. Aimed near the horizon, people couldn't tell which direction it was coming from...nice narrow beam compared to my other searchlights.
The beautiful beam is a nice painting to a glorious night sky. Photo from directly beneath the beam, next to searchlight.
Photo from near mail boxes, block away...300 feet...
Some good views from a block away...several hundred feet. Couldn't go any where with the crowds coming to see. Police almost said they'd stay and watch while I drove around to take photos.
Some of these composites were hard to align with the camera tripod. Software to straighten the photos was unavailable.
Photo from a block away.
Photo from a block away.
Photo from a block away.
Photos showing beam traveling overhead. Laser like look, hard to tell direction beam came from when aimed near horizon.
Photo from a block away. Beam paints a nice color in the night sky. Turquoise blue color looks nice.
Photo from behind searchlight.
I'll get back to posting on this shortly.