I want to buy a green laser for astronomy.

Hi !
I want to buy a cheap (<80 dollars) astronomy laser and i have 18650 cells.
I have found this : Sharp High Power Green laser 200mW /Waterproof/focusable [OL-WG-200] - $136.99 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce

But i'm pretty sure there is the same on aliexpress :
gros lasers 2013 imperméable vert pointeur laser stylo laser lampe de poche stylo star 500mw se réfère à long shot dans Pointeurs laser de Fournitures de bureau et scolaire sur AliExpress.com | Alibaba Group

Free Shipping Q LINE New 532nm 200mW green Beam Laser Flashlight / Laser Pointer / Adjustable Focusing / Waterproof-in Laser Pens from Computer & Office on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

What are the differences between the 3 lasers, they look similar.
Have them the same output and lenses ?

I want a high output (100-200mw) and some clear beam. I don't care about batteries and chargers.

Thank you if you can help ...

Don't buy from aliexpress. They are way overspec and poor in quality. Buy from your first link. However I would recommend this this

Your recommendation is a good one, over your budget but my preference is the 200mw 532nm Laserglow Aries for sale in the buy/sell section of this forum for 250, it has far tighter divergence than the 520nm green diode laser you linked to. For myself, divergence is where it's at, low is the way to go as you can put a much brighter spot at great distance at 1/25th the power of some of the high power 520nm multimode diode lasers.

Want a cheap laser that is hard to kill? Just buy one of those eight to ten dollar China specials you can find on ebay, buy several of them to increase the chances you will get a high power one, they are cheap enough to do that.

I don't know this seller, but this type is a good choice for starting out and most of them vary from 50 to 70mw, sometimes higher power output, nevermind the "5 mw". One of these is more than enough power output for astronomy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Military-5m...Laser-Pointer30-Battery-Charger-/261717915353 - Maybe better to find a seller with a much higher feed back, 98.9 isn't that good, when you see that and they have a high number of sales it means the real satisfaction rating is much worse, maybe as low as 70% but the ebay system hides it through the way they do things.

Thank You guys for your answers.
I can't buy the SF lasers because it's gonna be dusty in my pockets but I know it's great.

So I searched on EBay and found these :

http://m.ebay.fr/itm/231275627884?nav=SEARCH

http://m.ebay.fr/itm/201093430267?nav=SEARCH

http://m.ebay.fr/itm/371117636394?nav=SEARCH

The first one seems to be of good quality and the last is the same I found on Aliexpress but for only 10$, I can buy it just for the host.

The first one looks best to me, but keep looking, you might find it at a better price from another seller. This one: Ultra Puissant Laser Pointeur Stylo 0 5mW 8000M Faisceau Visible Etoile Vert | eBay isn't bad either, I have some of those, 50-70 mw output on average, but 25 percent or more of that is Infrared you can't see. Also, you can't focus that model, I think you might like one you can focus, such as the first one.

Thank you for the help. So i have sent a question to the seller of the 1st about power and i'm still searching for others ...

^

http://laserpointerforums.com/f44/h...ality-lasers-different-wavelengths-90062.html

-Alex

Interesting but the prices of 532 are too high.

Asix said:

Interesting but the prices of 532 are too high.

Click to expand...

I think that people see something for $1, that's a mere toy that looks like what its supposed to be, and, internalize that $1 as "What that type of thing costs".

They then see a real one for $100, and say, well, it might be better made, but, its too expensive...and so forth.

It depends on where you normalize pricing.

For example, the older you are, as a tendency, you tend to remember prices as being lower in general.

When I was a younger fellow for a example, a brand new Jaguar was a heady $4k or so.

Now, the average price of a new car in the US is ~ $35k or so.

To ME, $35k seems like an awful lot of money for a car....to my kids, its average, etc....as they see budget cars for the mid-teens to low $20k's, and more upper scale models in the $50k-$60k's, etc.

So, a real 532 laser might be able to run for a longer period of time because it has heat sinking, IR shielding, thicker wires, better soldering, etc, and last for many years.

A toy might look exactly the same, but be made by orangutangs on acid, and might work, or, might not, and if it works, its life might be brutish and short, etc....its run time might be very limited due to a lack of heat sinking, or, you might get a rare lucky one that lasts a year or so, etc....but doses you with IR, or whatever other corners were cut.

So, sure, you can buy a green Yugo cheaper than a green Toyota, and, they ARE both green, but, one might be more expensive than the other.


So, its about your baseline.

I agree with you, it depends of the budget you can put in it and I often buy high quality products that last. But the problem with the lasers is that you can buy a 150$ laser that will be the same as a 20$. And there isn't any 100-200 mW around 100 dollars in the list.
I don't understand these prices : My 750mW 445 from laserbtb is only 85$ even if the diode itself cost 40$.

Sorry for my English I'm French.

Thank you for your help !

Asix said:

I agree with you, it depends of the budget you can put in it and I often buy high quality products that last. But the problem with the lasers is that you can buy a 150$ laser that will be the same as a 20$. And there isn't any 100-200 mW around 100 dollars in the list.
I don't understand these prices : My 750mW 445 from laserbtb is only 85$ even if the diode itself cost 40$.

Sorry for my English I'm French.

Thank you for your help !

Click to expand...

Correct, hence some sites that sell the SAME laser for $10, $100 and $300, as someone might think the $300 one is better because its a lot more expensive.

Some sites don't do that though, and, logically, their prices FOR the decent ones might be higher. That doesn't mean that their prices are high per se, it could simply mean that they are not selling the cheap dangerous ones, etc.

IE: If you get a decent laser if you pay a decent price, that's fair. If the site is found to be fair, then, it gets recommended to others.

Its the only way we know if a site is selling cheap lasers for too much money, or, selling decent lasers at a fair price....we keep track.

The infinite quest ...

Here is a review of the one I bought : http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/w...532nm-200mw-aliexpress-93177.html#post1354335

Hope you'll like it !

Hmm. I can't really recommend them, but if you want cheap, and have a smartphone, grab either the Wish or Geek app, pay less than 20 bux, and have an SD301 or SD303. They seem to be at least 80mw, and shoot a heck of a beam into the sky. IR? Well there's no filter, so know that.

However, for a real quality, safer green, listen to the rest of the guys here.