I'm still willing to do the laser pointer brightness comparison test that I offered the SLAS board about ten years ago, and was summarily refused at the time. I'd have to rebuild my test apparatus, since I threw it out when I was told that the club wasn't interested in a laser demo and brightness comparison of different brands and output ratings. It involves the audience rating beam visiblily only (the dots are projected into a light trap and are not visible) and ranking all the lasers accordingly, then the results are tabulated and revealed at the end of the test. Audience members do not know which laser is which before or during the test. They only get to see the beams, side-by-side, up to six at a time on my original test-stand. Were I to rebuild it, I'd probably go with 4 lasers simultaneously. Winners of each group of 4 would then go up against each other in a final round. SLAS members would be encouraged to bring their own laser pointers to see how they stacked-up against others in the marketplace. The SLAS president at the time told me "All laser pointers are the same." On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 9:48 PM, Mark Shelton <astroshelton@yahoo.com>wrote:
I personally would like to see more demonstrations of almost any kind that are astronomy related at SLAS meetings. I think demonstrations related to astronomy are hard to come by and I am a hands on kind of guy.