Dark adaptation
Also called: night vision, red light.
Your eyes becoming far more sensitive in the dark — it takes 20–30 minutes and one white light ruins it.
In darkness your pupils open to 5–7 mm within seconds, but the real gain is chemical: the rods in your retina rebuild a light-sensitive pigment over 20–30 minutes, making you thousands of times more sensitive to faint light. A glance at a bright phone or torch resets much of it.
Red light disturbs the rods least, which is why observers use dim red torches.
At the eyepiece
Turn your phone to its night/red mode, cover bright screens, and give yourself half an hour before hunting faint objects.
In AstroPilot
The eye button at the top switches AstroPilot to red night-vision mode.