How does the BlueLine flashing mode help you see fluorescence in ambient light?
The flashing mode takes advantage of two aspects of human vision. One is that we notice flashing lights more easily than we notice steady lights. This is why all sorts of lights for warning applications blink – like police cars and road hazards – and why flashing text on a web page catches our attention. The other is that a short pulse of light appears brighter than a steady light of the same absolute intensity. These two factors combine to make the flashing a powerful tool for finding fluorescence when there is ambient light. As long as the excitation source and the blocking glasses are well matched, as they are with the BlueLine products, then as you scan the flashing light over a surface any flashing you see comes from something that is fluorescing. There are limits even to the power of the flashing to overcome ambient light, but even if you are in bright sun you can generally work successfully just by casting a shadow over the area you want to inspect. You can do this by using your
