Pointing at stars?

arnoldus · Aug 29, 2009

I'm looking for a laser to point out stars in constellations, in a suburb environment (moderate light pollution). Additionally, it should be safe for the eyes and cheap :yh:
Are green lasers the only option?

The cheapest I could find, which I believe has these features, is the Laserglow Lyra. Is this bright enough? Are there other alternatives?

sbdwag · Aug 29, 2009

A 50mw Green is probably enough in a suburb enviroment. O-like makes a great one for under 30US. I did a review of it on this site. If it is dark enought for you to see the pole star or the Cats eye in Scorpius or right now the faint glow of Orions Nebula this pen will be great. If not you may need to up it to 100mw and O-like also makes a great pen exactly the same in look and size as the 50 but cost around 75US

http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/review-o-like-olplp50-green-50mw-41052.html

regards
sbdwag

arnoldus · Aug 29, 2009

Thank you. Is it necessary for participants to wear safety glasses with this?

sbdwag · Aug 29, 2009

arnoldus said:
Thank you. Is it necessary for participants to wear safety glasses with this?

At night with one responsible person using the laser I would say its not necessary. Laser safetly glasses block that particular wavelength so they do reduce the visible light getting thru. My Green laser glasses are red so you would see all stars as red. Not a good thing. Just remember dont turn it on until is pointed to the sky in a group of people

regards
sbdwag

jayrob · Aug 29, 2009

Yeah it's not going to hurt your eyes just looking at the beam, but obviously it will instantly damage a persons eyes with a direct shot! You have to watch out for reflections too...
Jay

dead · Aug 29, 2009

My friend had a 5mW ebay laser and at night the beam was visible.

scopeguy20 · Aug 30, 2009

dead said:
My friend had a 5mW ebay laser and at night the beam was visible.

Really? I would maybe believe this if it was very foggy or a lot of dust in the air. Otherwise, a red 5 mW beam will not be seen at night with normal humane sight and not looking from directly behind the laser in an unusually dark setting. -Glenn

dead · Aug 30, 2009

Sorry i forgott it was a green 5mW laser and there was no fog.Maybe a bit more than 5mW but it was visible

brtaman · Aug 30, 2009

dead said:
Sorry i forgott it was a green 5mW laser and there was no fog.Maybe a bit more than 5mW but it was visible

Yeah, it was probably was over-spec.

That is the thing with the e-aby/NewWish/DX lasers, on one hand you are happy it is over-powered on the other hand all you wanted was a "safe" laser to play around with. There are quite a few documented cases of the 5mw DX lasers outputing well into the 20-40mw range.

scopeguy20 · Aug 30, 2009

Yes there are, and I have a "50 mW" LED Shoppe green laser that will easily light matches! The second most powerful one I got is on loan to Don't lase Me Bro, who proved it could pop a balloon at 20 feet! Review Link: http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/led-shop-50-review-42991.html (imho, both are doing 100 mW + at peak!) -Glenn

nikokapo · Aug 30, 2009

Wait, before you purchase the laser I must say that I also live in a very polluted area (sky is violet, no kidding). If you want other people to be able to see the beam easily I'd go for 100-150mW. You can get one from o-like for cheap and it will meet your expectations

I'm not exaggerating, but I'm telling you my experience with polluted skies..

scopeguy20 · Aug 30, 2009

No kidding Niko? with that much light pollution, are there stars to point to?

-Glenn

ZRTMWA · Aug 30, 2009

I live on the outskirts of a city. The number of stars is the sky is usually easily countable.

3zuli · Aug 31, 2009

hmm I've got 5mW and 50mW green (from dealextreme). the 5mW IS LITTLE visible in the night! the 50mW, thats an solid laser beam

anything >50mW will be OK

Pointing at stars?

arnoldus

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dead

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