QUOTES:
From CODEMAN
"Now that the USL's are shipping out, maybe we can have our own version of the "lighting of the beacons" scene from the LOTR's Return of the King!
Someone needs to determine how far away a USL can be seen. Not that such a measurement means anything...every time I see a commercial for a light that "can be seen over a mile away", I think, how many people buy a light based on how far away it can be seen? Unless it's to be used for signalling, who cares? Still, inquiring minds are curious.
From Grox
Hehe. Shoulda taken a video or something How far away were these balloons? "
ENDQUOTEs]
These comments have inspired me. I have no doubt that with optical sighting such as the Hubble Telescope, or the "Spies in the Skies" satellites that you could see the USL from Space. In fact with the USL, with the space telescopes it could undoubtedly overwhelm the sensors. With a more modest optical device, such as the zoom lens on a camcorder, I think that the USL could be seen and identified from at least 50 miles, possibly further.
Since I live in Denver and there are some mountains nearby, I think they are called the stoney mountains, or the Rocky Mountains or something like that, there should be an easy way to test this.
Anyway, when I receive my USL (hint hint Bill :> ), I could find a prominent Mountaintop location with a view to Denver, and either arrange for one of my kids to be at a distant location from the Mountaintop, say the front steps of the Colorado State Capitol, with a video camera pointing towards the Mountaintop and via the magic of cell phone communication between the "Transmitter Site" (USL on a Mountain) and the "receive site" we could talk to each other while I am flashing the USL to verify that is the source they are seeing, amidst all of the other lights on the Front Range Foothills. For example, if I was on Lookout Mountain, it is 13.4 miles as the photons fly to the Capitol. Or a more extreme case, if I were on the South side of Pike's Peak, it is more than 60 miles to the Capitol. Obviously, for a test of this distance, atmospheric conditions would be a major factor.
An interesting side note: There is a USGS benchmark on the Colorado State Capitol, on the West side stairs that shows an elevation of 5,280 feet, hence the nick name for Denver of the "Mile High City". There have been at least three different markers for the elevation of 5,280, due to increased accuracy in surveying techniques.
Now since today is October first, and a few of the high Mountain roads have closed due to snow fall, it would be a good idea to do this sooner, rather than later. Although Pike's Peak usually doesn't get enough snow to close the road completely during the winter, in fact we have driven to at least 13,500 feet on the Pike's Peak Toll Road in February. Another interesting test would be to also take along some other high output lights for comparison testing, such as the CostcoHID, and the X990, and a 10Watt Mag-HID conversion or a SureFire M-3 or L-6 or .......? All that is missing is the USL and the time to do this.
Maybe this could turn into a "Dual Ended Flashlight Party" with some Denver Area CPF people on Pike's Peak, and another group at the State Capitol or some other location in Denver since security will not let you drive into the circle drive unless you have suitable credentials?
What do you think?
Note: I changed the format of the quotes because when I tried using the quote function on CPF, it locked up my browser. It also locked up when I tried to edit my post to correct a couple of typos and add the quote from Grox. I found references to this lockup at:
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1083341&postcount=6 . This post also links to another thread describing the problem.
How far away were these balloons? 
