any recommendation for a portable 473nm blue ?

Hi,

I want to buy a blue laser pointer that can produce a visible beam at night for star pointing.
I know i can use a green one, but i thought blue would be really cool to impress my star party folks.
any recommendations for a cheap one, i mean relatively cheap one.

thanx

What is your budget? I may have something to interest you

- Carter

I know that the price of this kind of laser is around 400 for a <5mw power.
but I am not sure if I can really see the beam in the air when shining these 5mw blue pointers to the night sky.

Yep, I actually have a 5mW+ up for sale here for that price: http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1198192330

With fog you can definitely see the 5mW beam. Without a lot of humidity though, at night a 5mW beam is a bit difficult to see. If you try, you can see it, but its not blaringly obvious my any measure.

I also have >20mW units up to a 40mW Oceanus blue portable you may be interested in. Prices go up with power though! Send me a PM if you want to discuss further and see if we can work out a deal.

BTW, I've sent you a response to your PM about the blu-rays.

the blu ray lasers look brighter at night than a 473. mostly because of fluorescence, they are violetish though.

if you just have a blue 473 for the price of a 5-10 mw portable, you can buy a < 100mw 473 CNI labbie ( ~$600 )that's not too big and has the ability to be bolted onto a telescope or whatever. It is very impressive and it's not too big. ( at least the head is small it'll fit in your hand. the powersupply is about the size of a half sheet of paper and about 8 inches thick)