Anyone else use a defecoused red laser as a night vision aide? For Astronommy

I do alot of astrophotography and I noticed the red lasers seem to hold your night vision long then a red LED does. Since the LED can be a broead range. I guess 660nm lasers are probaly the best then since they'd be the most reddist at 650/660 right?

But what about using a 635nm muiltmode laser.

They're literally flashlights of lasers that beam is terrible.

But would it work or would 635 come off as too bright?

I personally like the 635nm for night sky pointing, for me, I think it maintains my night vision better than the 532nm's; that's just my opinion.
If you are going to use a red laser, I would definitely use something much less powerful than those multimode 635's, which are way too bright, and as you stated, have terrible beam quality.
I really like the "Opnet 120mW 638nm Single Mode" diodes that DTR sells.

joeyss said:

I noticed the red lasers seem to hold your night vision long then a red LED does. Since the LED can be a broead range.

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How would the moderately broader spectrum of an LED matter in the slightest?

Cyparagon said:

How would the moderately broader spectrum of an LED matter in the slightest?

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Even a 50mw 660nm seems to be much more reddish and brighter once I adapt to darkness then a green, which just murders your NV. I think the lower 630s in leds can kill some night vision. The 50mw appears real bright after awhile in a dark room even when shined through a lens that makes it the size of a maglite beam on the wall a few feet away. I know 532 kills night vision but I swear 405nm dosen't have that much of an effect maybe cause it's dim to begin with which is just weird seeing it's high energy per photon. There's just something about having a very narrow band emmision that isn't effected by temprature as much as leds are. I've once had a yellow led turn red orange when it got just a bit warm and then lime green when I a/c cooled it for like 2 minutes. Laser dioides don't change that much with temp unless you chill them extremly. so I won't have to worry about a 630s led crossing over into orange and getting brighter when it's cold outside. I mean like 8 F. It's all about the lower photon enegry in 650/660nm lasers that I feel keeps the molecues that your retina makes for night vision from being wrecked. Plus I can control the focus much better than a LED.