NEWTOT_at_mail.modot.state.mo.us wrote: <SNIP> >>I also notice the increased presence of bugs when I use my headlamp at night - it's like a beacon to the bug world! I hate to give away my location just because I need to see what's ahead. Wish I could afford night vision goggles!<< My understanding is that the brightest light, to a moth and some other night flying insects, is taken to be the moon and is used as a distant fixed object in which to navigate in a straight line (by keeping it at the same visual angle). Since your headlamp is a "beacon" much closer than the moon a moth flying by it (with it in its forward quadrant of vision) will naturally spiral into the light trying to hold the angle constant. You will also notice that sometimes moths spiral out and away from lights. They are trying to hold it fixed in a rearward quadrant of their visual field. This is kind of off topic so let see if I can make it more relevant to keep the list mom happy. A kayaker in fog could likewise be confused by a nearby sound that sounded more distant than it was. He could easily circle the sound (if ignoring the compass or GPS). I once circled a small island I was wanting to travel along because I knew a spit pointed where I wanted to go, into the bay of the next island. Unfortunately the spit was covered by high tide and so we didn't realize we were circling the island until we came upon the landmark we had first sighted (after navigating directly to it after a six mile crossing by compass and compensating for the winds and currents). For a few minutes we thought we were pretty hot stuff finding that little island in that thick fog after six miles. We then ignored our compasses and tried to navigate using the nearby island (remember the moth). While circling the island we didn't even recognize the true cause of the sudden change in current direction. It even took us a few moments to realize that the tower (that shouldn't have been where we thought we were) was actually our first landfall. That sure took the wind out of our overblown sails. Fog really throws off distance perception as well. I can recall seeing breaking waves in an overfall in fog and because they were so much nearer than they looked to be I took them to be several times larger than they turned out to be. Anyway, the bugs don't like your light, it is just another form of human interference with nature (providing an unnatural light). The resultant navigational error it causes can burn the moth on the flame. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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