Ok, this is a cool thread...
Here's some pics of some stuff that's been done by me and guys in our club.
We usually hold a night launch toward the end of summer when the weather turns cooler but is still pretty settled... Everybody flying a night launch rocket flies it IN ITS FULL-UP NIGHT LAUNCH CONFIGURATION during daylight to ensure stability and get a feel for recovery. Of course usually the winds die down and/or change after dark, so it's not foolproof. Anyway, a few observations:
1) glow sticks are practically useless unless you COVER the rocket in them. The weight adds up quickly, so that means a bigger motor is necessary. The light output is quite low, ESPECIALLY at a distance and the glow sticks are not a particularly intense source of light, so they become virtually invisible in flight, under parachute, and laying on the ground. Mikus launched a Blue Ninja with about 6 glow sticks taped around the center of the rocket, and we never saw it after burnout-- and even after an hour's plus search on the ground, I never saw it (until three months later feeding cows found in laying there in HEAVY frost one morning by chance!)
2) flashing LED's and such are really neat looking and easiest to find on recovery.
3) a night rocket doesn't have to be terribly complicated-- Dave Montgomery's was just an Estes Hijax payloader with a blinking LED beer bottle lapel pin turned on and slid into the clear payload tube... neat flight and even with a long drift on recovery, it was visible from 30 feet away or so in the pasture because the LED was merrily blinking away, lighting up the surrounding grass for 5-10 feet in front of it.
4) directional light sources aren't as good as omnidirectional ones... had Dave's beer-pin Hijax landed "face down" on the ground, it would have been virtually impossible to find unless you were standing on it. A second light source 180 degrees out would have prevented this and improved visibility under chute (second beer pin inserted back to back with the first one).
5) LEDs such as "finger lights" and other such contraptions can light up a plastic nosecone with a cheery glow for a VERY nice effect. Some of the best flights we've seen have been from such rockets.
6) make sure that whatever 'finger light' or other such device you use, that the BATTERIES and SWITCHES will remain "turned on" or "in contact" during flight... lotsa gee forces have a habit of pulling slide switches mounted vertically toward the rear, which usually means TURNS IT OFF. Even small watch batteries can lose contact under the heavy gees of acceleration, and if the device is controlled by a single 'on-off' button using a latching relay or SCR or whatever that turns off if it loses power, even when the gee forces abate and the battery is pushed back up into contact, the light WILL STAY OFF (until the button is pushed). Same thing goes for buttons-- make sure they're mounted in such a way that the gee forces don't "push the button" (gee forces can pull "heavy" plastic push inserts against the switch or contacts with enough pressure to "push the button" under thrust) at liftoff or during flight! (We've seen several that this happened to). Shim batteries using balsa or cardstock to ensure they maintain contact throughout the flight (shims between/behind the battery contact spring coils-- of course you have to maintain contact of the spring with the battery!)
7) forget about glow-in-the-dark paint and other such stuff-- the light intensity is too low. In flight and in the air, and even on the ground after recovery, it's practically invisible. I came within a foot of running over a rocket painted with glow in the dark paint whose LED nose light had quit (see #6), and only saw it by pure chance.
8) it's good to have someone on recovery duty... since the club launches from my farm, I've spent at least an hour or two after everything winds down (usually around 9-10 pm) out looking for night launch rockets in the pastures after everybody left, usually on the golf cart. Actively illuminated rockets are easiest to find at night, but their power supply won't last 24 hours, so it's good to do any searches at night. Any that can't be found probably have a 50/50 chance of being found the next day, because they may have landed somewhere or in such a way that they're impossible to see at night but readily apparent in daytime. I've recovered several rockets after every night launch and usually end up storing them for awhile until they find their way back to their proper homes...
Hope these tips from experience help...
Here's the pics!
First I'll show you the pic and see if you can guess what it is...
Any luck??
These are pics of Mikus's BABY BERTHA with an LED finger-light taped to the bottom of the nosecone in the moulding hole, shining up into the cone and illuminating it. He painted the nosecone flourescent pink, and it's VERY visible! Just be sure your batteries maintain contact throughout flight, and the switch is securely taped "ON". Also, I'd recommend against painting the body tube BLACK... it looks cool in daytime, but it's impossible to see at night. His batteries lost contact in flight and didn't get good contact again until a breeze tugged the chute enough to rattle the rocket enough to turn the light back on by chance after landing, which is how I found it an hour after everybody had left.
Here's another one... guesses??
This is a modified stormcaster (IIRC) for night launch-- the tip of the nosecone has been trimmed back enough for an LED light using some sort of plastic rod with bubbles in the plastic to be glued into the tip, turned on by twisting the tip down tight against the batteries. It was also painted with glow in the dark paint (the white chalky stuff) that liked to come off on everybody's hands more than it liked to stay on the rocket and actually light the thing up, and it was practically invisible anyway. Make sure your batteries maintain contact, because this one lost contact in flight and was virtually impossible to see under chute (too small and directional a light source in the nosecone tip) and with the nosecone laying on the ground, I nearly ran over the thing with the golf cart before I saw it... literally a foot away from it! Neat idea, but could have used more lights...
Later! OL JR