Moonlight night hike

 When cub camping with Scooter the other day, I was reminded of one of my favorite boy scouting memories.  One year at boy scout summer camp I went for my astronomy merit badge.  As part of this we took a moonlight hike with the other scouts in my troop.  We went up a hill and looked at stars in the clearing. 

On the way back our guide had us all turn our flashlights off.  We were shocked and scared when he said this.  He insisted we could do it.  It was almost a full moon.  He said we had more than enough light to make it all the way back to camp.  We turned off our flashlights and waited for our eyes to adjust.  We were shocked at how well it worked.  We could see everything, every when we were deep in the woods.

Our guide described how night vision works and how to use it on a hike.  He told us how turning on a flashlight disrupts your night vision, how you can keep your night vision if you have a red filter on your flashlight.  We talked about the light spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet and how that impacts our vision.  

This whole thing blew my mind.  It impacted me and stayed with me for the rest of my life.  When I got back home from camp, I'd walk around in the dark all the time to trigger my night vision.  I'd go outside in the dark to see what I could make out.  

I wanted to show my son this same thing.  When we were at cub camp the night sky was bright and the ground was very reflective.  I could see the whole campsite without a flashlight.  My son refused to turn off his light.  He was afraid of the dark.  Maybe someone else needs to guide my son to this lesson.