Please don't purchase Jasper's 50MW or 100MW lasers. I don't want to sound like a sanctimonious jerk, and I fully realize how telling people how to spend their hard earned money is the height of arrogance -- especially when it comes to a beloved hobby. However, I do have strong opinions about green lasers as they are not only important to my hobby, but also my career -- and not a day (or night) goes by that I don't celebrate how lucky I am to be able to claim astronomy as both. So if you can stomach a little rant, please hear me out. While Jasper's 5MW curve pointer appears to be a great product perhaps as good as www.z-bolt.com lasers, I would suggest that SLAS members, and all amateur astronomers for that matter please boycott these these 50MW and 100WM "modules" and caution others to do the same. Apparently Jasper has found a loophole or at best a legal work around. Selling anything more powerful than 5MW regardless of whether it comes in 1 or 2 pieces is in violation of "the spirit and intent" of the law. I mean come on, if you count each battery that powers the illegal big 500MW lasers from unscrupulous Chinese websites it could be argued that they are 3 different parts. 1 illegally bright laser and 2 batteries sold separately. Ugh. Isn't this is a little bit like saying guns don't kill people. Bullets fired from guns, by people, kill people? While being able to ignite matches, pop balloons, and burn dark colored paper sounds impressive, it has nothing to do with astronomy and sounds a lot more like pyromania. We never use our telrads on full blast so why would we need anything more than 5MW for a telescope guider? I've heard it argued that at high altitudes and low humidity 5MW isn't enough but they work fine at Bryce and unless your planning to teach constellations to mountaineering expeditions, most won't find themselves being much higher or drier. Keep in mind that the 5MW restriction law has many "intents" the most significant of them surrounding homeland security and distracting or blinding pilots. One downed airliner and we are back to big flashlights. UNLESS we show the FDC, FCC, TSA, etc. that we are capable of policing ourselves they won't hesitate to punish all of us non-offenders in the very first attempt to deter the potentially guilty. I'm motivated by the fact that for most people their first exposure to green lasers will be at a star party and that the most common question will be "Hey, where can I get one of those?" I always suggest www.z-bolt.com as they refuse to sell lasers brighter than 5MW and I always give the law abiding "these are not toys, nor a constitutional right, but a precarious privilege earned and maintained by united responsible behavior." At Bryce we do nearly 100 constellation tours a year and though our combined experience and effort certainly hasn't unveiled all the answers, I can assure you that laser strength has never been a determining factor in whether a constellation tour is well received or not. We've found that knowing how to star-hop, well told star stories, and some meaningful (matters to average lives of average people) astronomy and pretty quickly the laser becomes just another tool and not the show itself. To that end, I offer my Constellation Contemplation powerpoint I've posted on slideshare as some "draft" curriculum for a 3-year "Sky Rangers" training project. Thanks to a NASA funded grant that Astronomical Society Pacific and I successful obtained we will be holding on-line and hands-on workshops (with live audiences at Bryce) in an effort to increase astronomy literacy and the corresponding interpretive techniques throughout the NPS. Download it and see if it offeris any ideas you can use. Though the narration and animations are mine they reflect the combined experience of all of Bryce Canyon's Dark Rangers. I'll take responsibility for mistakes or areas in need of improvement. So, any and all comments would be most welcome -- especially the critical ones as they tend to facilitate the most improvement. http://www.slideshare.net/iamthedarkranger In the meantime please give due consideration to my plea to not subsidize the illegal and/or even the quasi-legal laser industry. On the other hand if you must have one perhaps I could persuade you to not use one at public star parties? Again just another request. If nothing else, at least now I hope you'll better appreciate why I must prevent their use at Bryce Canyon? Thanks. On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:09 PM, Richard Tenney <retenney@yahoo.com> wrote:
--- On Tue, 2/17/09, JasperLaser.com <no-reply@jasperlaser.com> wrote: From: JasperLaser.com <no-reply@jasperlaser.com> Subject: New from JasperLaser.com: 50mw and 100mw green lasers! To: "Richard Tenney" <retenney@yahoo.com> Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 1:03 PM
New from JasperLaser.com: 50mw and 100mw Green Lasers
Think your 5mw Jasper Laser is cool? Your jaw will drop when you experience our 50mw and 100mw lasers. Here's why:
+ Same quality, more power! Our lasers feature the best lenses and are 100% infrared filtered, just like their 5mw counterparts.
+ 100% legal in the U.S.! Sold as modules, these lasers fall outside of restrictions on laser pointers.
+ Convert to a pointer in seconds! Use our $9 Jasper Laser Pointer Kit to convert to your own homemade pointer.
+ Modules ship March 9th.
Jasper 100mw Laser Module: $350 $315 with pre-order discount code PRE
Jasper 50mw Laser Module: $230 $190 with pre-oder discount code PRE
Jasper Laser Pointer Kit $9
Best Regards,
The JasperLaser.com Team JasperLaser.com, 9811 W Charleston Blvd, Suite 2-786, Las Vegas, NV 89117 | main line: 877-388-7362 | visit us online at: www.JasperLaser.com <http://www.jasperlaser.com/>
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-- By the 3rd millennium, the reckless use of light nearly vanquished the night. A formidable few rushed to defend the last sanctuaries of natural darkness.
From the national parks, armed with science, mythology and a love for all things nocturnal came warrior poets who pushed back against the light. They were called Dark Rangers, and no one knew their names. . .
Kevin Poe 435-590-9498 (c)