# Can a Ship Be Too Bright at Night?

**URL:** <https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/can-a-ship-be-too-bright-at-night/77537>\
**Category:** Professional Mariner Forum\
**Tags:** colregs, navigation, maritime-safety\
**Created:** [September 23, 2026, 12:05am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/can-a-ship-be-too-bright-at-night/77537 "2026-09-23T00:05:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Raghu\_Sharma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/raghu_sharma/32/71148_2.png) [@Raghu\_Sharma](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Raghu_Sharma)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 12:05am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/can-a-ship-be-too-bright-at-night/77537/1 "2026-09-23T00:05:40Z")

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As a Master, one thing I have always found slightly ironic is how particular we are about light on our own bridge. Even one open porthole curtain or a bright screen can annoy the navigating officer because it affects night vision.

Then you look outside and see another ship lit up like a terminal.

Yes, you can see her. But can you actually read her properly? Can you immediately pick out the sidelights, masthead lights and aspect? And what happens to the smaller targets around or behind all that glare?

I wrote about in this DeepDraft piece.

> **[Navigating in a Sea of Visual Pollution - The DeepDraft](https://thedeepdraft.com/2026/09/21/navigating-in-a-sea-of-visual-pollution/)**
>
> We spend a lot of effort making ships visible at night. Sometimes we make them harder to understand.

Interested to hear how others see this from their own night-watch experience.

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**Author:** ![MAK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@MAK](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/MAK)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 2:53am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/can-a-ship-be-too-bright-at-night/77537/2 "2026-09-23T02:53:15Z")

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Don’t hit the big orange glowing thing. If you know what nav lights are you aren’t who im worried about

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**Author:** ![yacht\_sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed655f/32.png) [@yacht\_sailor](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/yacht_sailor)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 9:06am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/can-a-ship-be-too-bright-at-night/77537/3 "2026-09-25T09:06:54Z")

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An actual cruise ship looks like a floating amusement park at night. While the running lights may be hard to pick out, you for sure can see it.

Now that AIS got invented it isn’t all that hard to figure out where it is going, previously one could still get a bearing on center mass of the big light collection, My question would be more how do they see anything but reflected light?

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**Author:** ![LaurentVale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ab097/32.png) [@LaurentVale](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/LaurentVale)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 1:27pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/can-a-ship-be-too-bright-at-night/77537/4 "2026-09-25T13:27:02Z")

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Over-lighting can definitely make night identification harder. A ship might be easy to spot while still making her navigation lights harder to distinguish, especially with strong deck or work lights. The effect on smaller targets nearby is also worth considering during a busy night watch.

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**Author:** ![wfrowein22](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/wfrowein22/32/74376_2.png) [@wfrowein22](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/wfrowein22)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 2:05pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/can-a-ship-be-too-bright-at-night/77537/5 "2026-09-25T14:05:52Z")

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Absolutely agree. It is sometimes difficult to discern and confusing to find the navigation lights. However there are more ways to make out the way a vessel is going. Once you know do not come too close. However when you get too close , yes, nightview gets affected for sure.