Nope, this will be my first report to the group. My 75mW green laser from DestructiveGear.com arrived yesterday (Thursday), less than a week after I ordered it. Considering it came in an envelope with a Taiwanese postmark, that's pretty impressive. The laser seems to be very well made and came with a bench test report indicating that over its 20 second quality control test it had a mean output of a skosh over 80 mW. This little bugger is _bright_. If you want to do the electrical tape cutting and match lighting, this laser is just _barely_ able to do that. I'd say go for the 100 mW if you're dreaming of a death ray. As a night sky pointer, it's simply incredible. As I told Chuck off-line, a person with a P.A. system and one of these lasers could do a star & constellation ID session for a very large audience. I had my son stand over a hundred feet from my last night in city lighting conditions and the beam still looked like a bright pole of light going right to the star he was pointing at. I wish I'd bought the 100 mW laser, but this little bugger for $180 is still sweet - my favorite new toy. BTW, it uses fairly expensive 123 Lithium camera batteries. The best deal I've found for them is a box of 12 from surefire.com. Delivered they'll run you about $26 for the dozen, compared to about $8-$10 each if bought singly from the local supermarket. It's a blast! Seth Jarvis, Director Clark Planetarium -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 12:54 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] DesctructiveGear.com I got a tracking update that my 100mw has cleared Customs. Should be here in a few days. Seth has reported terrific incendiary news on his 75mw. (Did you report to the group while I was off-line?) _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com