# How bright is 2 million candlepower? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bright-is-2-million-candlepower/287385 "2005-01-30T05:06:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bright-is-2-million-candlepower/287385/21 "2005-01-31T21:29:10Z")
Quoth **Shagnasty** : > [@](#): > > This part is illegal so don’t do it. You can used them to spotlight deer. That means shining a really bright light at a deer at night and causing it to freeze. You can imagine the rest. Laws on this will undoubtably vary from state to state. However, in Pennsylvania where my family comes from, it is legal to spot deer, though it is not legal to shoot them while they’re spotted. Hunters will typically go out spotting a few nights before the season opens, so they can see where the deer are hanging out and pick good hunting spots. Not being a hunter myself, I do not know how bright the lights are which are typically used for this. ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bright-is-2-million-candlepower/287385/22 "2005-01-31T21:52:49Z")
I have a 10 million candlepower rechargeable spotlight on a stand that I use for fixing my car in the dark (swapping wheels before a race, etc.). As an added bonus, it does put out quite a bit of heat, which is helpful on those chilly winter nights. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bright-is-2-million-candlepower/287385/23 "2005-01-31T22:23:48Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > That brings up the question, is it illegal to shoot one of those 800+ million candlepower beams straight up from your front yard? If not, why not? I have no idea of the legality but you see those trucks with spotlights on the back all the time at clubs and grand openings and such merrily beaming spotlights into the sky. I wonder if they need a special permit everytime they do that? One would think they don’t but then (for example) I cannot imagine pilots going in for a landing at O’Hare Airport would be thrilled getting spotlighted in final approach to land. Interesting question. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bright-is-2-million-candlepower/287385/24 "2005-02-01T03:03:50Z")
Does anybody happen to know how much candlepower some of the those movie lights give off? Say a standard Arri 5k Studio Tungsten, or a big-ass HMI? ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bright-is-2-million-candlepower/287385/25 "2005-02-01T07:36:24Z")
Anyone find anything brighter than [2700 million candlepower](http://home.att.net/~jbaugher4/a20_4.html)? > [@](#): > > Thirty-nine Havoc IIs were later modified to carry 2700 million candlepower Turbinlite searchlights in their noses, and had all their armament deleted. The searchlights were powered by large and heavy batteries carried in the bomb bay. The theory of their operation involved their cooperation with Hurricane fighters. Ground radar would locate the enemy aircraft, and the Havoc II (Turbinlite) would illuminate the target aircraft so that it could be attacked by the Hurricanes. These Turbinlite Havoc IIs served briefly until the development of centimetric radar made such techniques obsolete. The ten operational squadrons which had been formed around the Havoc I and II were disbanded in early 1943. I also found a [website](http://www.electro-optical.com/whitepapers/candela.htm) that shows how to convert ‘candlepower’ a.k.a [candela](http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/candela.html) or ‘[cd](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candela)’ (eg 2700 million cd). I then plugged candela into google calculator and that works too 🙂 Google calculator tells me that 1 candella equals 1 lumen ([this page](http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/apr2001/987003940.Ph.r.html) makes it sound much more difficult) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-bright-is-2-million-candlepower/287385.md?page=1)