I did a little research once I got some background from you guys. Hope this helps someone else: Tina Full Spectrum Light Sources and Dash Labs� ICE light Full spectrum tubes imitate, as closely as possible, natural sunlight by emitting light in every spectral range. All the different colours of visible light and a very small amount of ultraviolet is emitted. The Duro-Test Company produces "Vita-Lite" tubes. GE produces "Chroma 50", Philips produces "Colortone 50", Sylvania produces "Designer 5000K". All these tubes have an output spectrum that is similar to sunlight - about as close as modern chemistry can bring us. These tubes try to imitate equatorial sunlight at noon, which has a colour temperature of around 5000K. Noonday sunlight from northern climes has a larger amount of blue in the spectrum, as has a colour temperature of 7500 Kelvin. Since the red pigment in plants is limited by blue light these are sometimes useful. Duro- Test sells a "Vita Lite 75", GE sells a "Chroma 75" and Philips sells a "Colortone 75". There is quite a disparity in availability and price of these tubes. The Vita Lites have very good distribution. They can be found in most aquarium stores (and many pet stores as they are also used for illuminating lizards who need the Vitamin D from the ultraviolet light). The downside of this is like anything you buy in a pet store that you can buy in a hardware store, they price can be quite high when buying them from a pet store: $15 - 20+. The same Vita-Lite tube from a lighting supplier is about $7, and the Chroma 75 I have obtained for less than $5. They are nearly identical. _______________________________________________________________ Sponsored by Beakers Graphic Designs http://www.probe.net/~beakers/ecsp.htm The Xstitch Home page at http://www.probe.net/~beakers/xshome.htm Mary Joseph - XStitch List Moderator - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Monica Sudds - XStitch List Administrator - [EMAIL PROTECTED] ���������������������o unsubscribe TO: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message: unsubscribe XStitch
