A few of us purchased the 100mW laser from DestructiveGear.com last year. Mine cuts through a black plastic trash bag easily, and ignites matches. Last fall, Bob Grant was on the peak of Mount Olympus, talking to me by cell phone, while I was in my front yard at noon, on a sunny day. He and his hiking companion clearly saw the bright green beam as I swept the peak with it. Makes a dandy star pointer; you can see the beam before it's even fully dark and it looks like an infinitely long light saber. My 20mW Beta laser is also an excellent pointer, without the danger of accidentally starting your pocket on fire, lol. I can just imagine myself trying to explain the need for a 200mW laser to my wife. Probably not going to happen any time soon... On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 10:16 PM, Dan Hanks <danhanks@gmail.com> wrote:
Here's one of the 200 mW variety:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1997
They say it can cut through thin plastic. They won't ship these to the US, though...
On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 7:12 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
From experience, I can tell you that a 5mW green laser isn't the best choice as a star-pointer from the suburbs. If you want something readily visible for a star-party from a valley location, go with 10mW or more.
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
-- Kiva.org - Loans That Change Lives
_______________________________________________ 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