Re: ATM - Color sensitivity of the eye

["Michael P Lindner" <mpl@cmprime.wndev.att.com>]

On Jul 7,  1:29pm, Jim McKay wrote:
> Subject: ATM - Color sensitivity of the eye
>
> Is it the case that red light represents the best choice for preserving
> night vision?  Has anyone used other color of light ?  If so, are other
> wavelengths better at illuminating objects without destroying night vision?
>-- End of excerpt from Jim McKay

According to Feynman's "Lectures on Physics" volume 1 (closest book I
could find with the info in it), the "cones" are most sensitive to
orange-yellow light, and the rods to green-blue light (from memory -
I'll look it up again tonight).

The cones are the color sensors, but have low resolution and are not
very sensitive.  The rods sense only light and dark, but have higher
resolution (i.e.  there are more of them) and can detect fainter light.
The rods use a pigment called "visual purple", which gets "used up" very
quickly in bright light, so any light that the rods detects, lessens
their ability to see very faint light.

Red light stimulates the cones, but not the rods very much, so it
doesn't destroy "dark adaptation".  For seeing detail and slight
differences, you want to stimulate the rods.

--
Michael Lindner