airborn Arc light big hit last night at blues fest

Last night I was at a small blues festival with a bunch of friends. My wife and I had brought some big mylar helium balloons to make it easier for people who were joining us to find the tent we set up at the back of the crowd. After dark, a couple people mentioned that next year we needed some kind of lantern for next year's party.

Since I had my Arc AAA and LSH with me, these got passed around quite a bit. Then, I had a little brainstorm. I sent my AAA up about 35 feet on one of the balloons, and it provided an absolutely amazing soft illumination over a small area, just enough to allow people to see to dig into their coolers and to walk without stepping on anything.

It was a really pleasant evening with a gentle breeze, and occassionally the balloon drifted around over head, passing over the encampments of people nearby, and the light would swing, throwing it's beam around the crowd. As they would look up, all they could see was the light, and maybe the string if the light hit it. Everyone loved it. I also sent up my LSH for a short while, but the light was really brighter than we wanted, so the AAA went back up.

Sounds like you're in a position to start a UFO invasion....

My mother is a retired grade school teacher. About 15 years ago there was a rash of UFO sightings that we caused by kids making hot air balloons out of dry cleaner bags using birthday cake candles. They'd let them go upwind of populated areas on dark nights and watch the papers...

Finally set a house on fire. Turned out to be a couple of her students, the Blue Meanies came to class fer 'em.

Doug Owen

Try putting your AAA INSIDE the balloon! Would make a nifty camp site locator.

xrayzebra, cool story! I like it. Now I got to do that...

How big where the ballons and how dark was the surroundings?

Hmm.. Moon mode...

Peter

Awesome idea! will have to try it some time when the opportunity presents itself.
LOL-can see myself running thru a crowd staring upwards after the string comes loose of gets cut from it's anchoring! That would suck, but it would be a gift from the heavens for whoever found it.

The balloon was pretty good size, like a 36 inch crescent moon shape. That lifted the AAA as if there was nothing attached. It wouldn't lift the LS very well, so I attached it to a cluster of various sizes.

I noticed a lot of people at the fest with various LED lights that I could not identify because all I could see was the light from them, but they were obviously LEDs by the colors.

I bought some LS emitters (from Arc) for experimentation. I'm really tempted to launch my own UFO, maybe a nice mylar balloon lifting some sort of translucent container with a 1W star inside. Too bad I can't get it ready for Tuesday's Mars viewing! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

{In a monotone machine voice}
Invaders!!! Invaders!!!
Invaders from the 5th dimension!!!
Invaders!!! Invaders!!!