So I forgot all about updating this site with all my latest projects. But you are patient, I can tell!
My last few posts here mentioned buiding an astronomy light to help see sketches and star charts at the telescope. And how about that, I actually made one!
The design is very simple: I found one of those clip on lamps you would use to read while your partner is being a vampire or whatever and can't sleep in a lit room. I replaced the LED with a red one but it was initially way too bright. The solution was to wire a small trimmer potentiometer to adjust the current going through the LED and make it dimmer or brighter (but with the current limiting resisitor still in series so you don't blow it out) with a small screw driver. I think I used a 10k Ohm trimpot simply because that's what I had in the lab. It was a bit fiddly to get it inside the battery compartment but with a little patience and removing a few standoffs, it fits surprisingly well.
I tried it with a pocket star chart looking for double stars and it works wonderfully. I tried to sketch with it but absolutely everything else went wrong that night so I don't have a great report regarding its performance there, but I did notice a very slight "bullseye" effect on the paper so I will have to look into frosting the lens somehow to diffuse the light.
If you can solder without maiming yourself (or even if you can't as burns on my fingers may indicate) and you've put together stubborn model kits, this is a super easy project and simpler/ more reliable than most plans I've found online.
