It's 4 am, do you know where your blind neighbors are?
Had to put away the giant 72 inch Biggest light, too big for my home. Brought back the 50 inch Monster..!
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.
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.
Halloween:
Here are some quick photos, (better ones to be transferred soon), of the awesome Halloween night 50 inch MONSTER searchlight Trick or Treaters flood and hundreds of vehicles on our private street to see what the "Big Light", was all about.. Awesome. Met many great people.
At sunset I turned the searchlight on and found it was already dark enough to be seen.
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Searchlight is bright enough to be seen at sunset.
Yes the light was phenomenal. Never had such a line of vehicles like this before.
Just wanted everyone to know this MONSTER 50 inch searchlight is a winner. So many cars came by and used up much of our trick or treat candy..! Met many people from far away towns and small cities. People from towns twenty miles distance said it was bright where they were located.
One day would like to power all the lights at once, but will take a while to have the resources to power all the lights at once. Would like to have them all on at once, some day. Here is how the 50 inch Monster looked Halloween Night.
Hard to say, I'd like to one day have the means to compare many of my searchlights together. For now I can do a 1,200 watt HMI, NightHawk or 36 inch Gorilla, comparison to the 4,000 HMI 50 inch Monster, when the neighbors won't be bothered. Have to do it when the nights come real early next month.
Just wanted everyone to know this MONSTER 50 inch searchlight is a winner. So many cars came by and used up much of our trick or treat candy..! Met many people from far away towns and small cities. People from towns twenty miles distance said it was bright where they were located.
Here are some quick photos, (better ones to be transferred soon), of the awesome Halloween night 50 inch MONSTER searchlight Trick or Treaters flood and hundreds of vehicles on our private street to see what the "Big Light", was all about.. Awesome. Met many great people.
Click here to view the original image of 1578x885px.
Another shot taken from a camera hard to transfer photos from. Looks great, will get it in better quality soon.
First photo of the night my cell phone camera could actually take.
At sunset I turned the searchlight on and found it was already dark enough to be seen.
Searchlight is bright enough to be seen at sunset.
Halloween begins with this brilliant beam that could be seen twenty miles in distant small towns.
My 385,000 lumen Four thousand watt, HMI high efficiency, medium arc, 50 inch diameter MONSTER searchlight drew in Hundreds and hundreds of vehicles, multiple dozens of "Trick or Treaters", more than all other years here combined. One photo is from cell phone and one with a rainbow vein, like a rainbow caught in the light beam.
(You can see the high tech light bulb cooling down next to the air cooled 'split half reflector', which redirects otherwise wasted back light, back through the arc chamber, and onto the main reflector.)
Beam looked thinner to the eye, but cloud nicely lit.
Cool photo showing beam splitting raindrops up into colors like a rainbow.
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While the rain was falling heavily, rainbow patterns were visible at various parts of the light beam. Looked real neat.
4,000 watt, 385,000 lumen HMI High Tech bulb cooling down.
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The split reflector cooling system has reduced the tarnishing effects of the intense heat assaulting the back split reflector.
Beam was bright enough for the my cell phone to capture the beam in rain.
Click here to view the original image of 1024x756px.
Very impressive. The beam could be seen for many, many miles. People from many of the small and large towns and small cities scattered in the area, came for some candy and to see a searchlight, many had never seen one in person before. The look on many people's faces was like they had just seen God, or were otherwise spiritually lifted.
Car headlights compete with the much brighter searchlight beam 1:200 ratio in brightness.
Beam isn't totally culminated, but it looks like a laser when underneath it in another neighborhood...I'm told.
Way worth the effort. Now we get many Trick or Treaters when in the entire history of our small part of town, we had almost no people come by on Halloween...ever. I'm stoked....don't have to eat so much left over candy now....HA.
Will have to do this again. Originally I was going to make this the last appearance of the light, but due to high public approval, I may do it again, next year..!
When resources allow, the World's Biggest Searchlight will be "resurrected". For now the 60 inch WWII wann-a-BE Monster 50 inch searchlight will be my Big Light for now. A true WWII searchlight will blow mine away, but it'll be interesting to see how the two would compare. Maybe at Flash-a-holic event to be scheduled soon...I hope..!
This BIG LIGHT is very portable and is the old 50 inch Monster I made 6 years ago, but needed the "boost" of a powerful bulb to allow it to "shine"!
