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FrozenGate by Avery

473nm - Minumum mW for Good Beam Visibility at Night without fog?

ElectroMagneticFreak

ElectroMagneticFreak

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Hello,

I am looking to get my 1st 473nm laser for the purpose of enjoying the beam outdoors in the night sky! I did some comparison with the relative brightness calculator which stated that 20mW of 473nm is only 18% as bright as 20mW 532nm.

I was looking at some older posts from 5 years ago where someone said they could see the beam of a 17mW 473nm quite clearly. I was thinking about getting a lab 473nm but my primary use would be outdoors at night so plugging it in indoors and pointing it out the window at the right angle into the sky might be a bit tricky and maybe not the safest. I guess it also isn't as ideal because of the warmup time required.

Since handhelds are quite expensive I was considering the Dragon Lasers 20mW 473nm which is $300 and probably nearing the top of my budget.

Would 20mW of 473nm be sufficient to be able to enjoy the beam without fog at night? I don't know if it would be worth it to spend $300 if the beam isn't that visible, so maybe that would make it more compelling to get a labby instead with a more favorable cost / mW ratio.

Thanks very much for any input! :beer:
 
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20mW should be enough, I can tune down my labby tonight to confirm, however I think the spartan will be overspec, you should be fine going with that.

...But, if you're willing to spend another $90 you can get a >80mW handheld from lasever.com. Same host as CNI's PGL-III-C.
 
ZRaffleticket said:
20mW should be enough, I can tune down my labby tonight to confirm, however I think the spartan will be overspec, you should be fine going with that.
.
Click to expand...

Wow thanks, if you have a way of producing 20mW on your labby I would be really curious to know how the 20mW beam of your 473nm looks. That would be great! :wave:
 
Yeah, I get home around 4, so I'll have some up by 4:30. At least my room gets pretty dark.
 
~double post 5:00 instead~

Instead of resizing everything, here's a link to the album.

Top left to bottom right (1-7) :
1) Laser running at full power (~240mW) lasing towards camera. If you want to know what 473nm looks closest to, it's the spec of dust in the top right. Or the beam in my avatar.
2) Laser at ~20mW (+/- 2mW) lasing towards camera
3) Beam perpendicular to camera at ~20mW - more visible to me than my camera.
4) Daytime shot toward camera, ~20mW
5) Shining on laserbee.
6) laserbee reading, why did I take a physical picture of my screen?
7) Finally, what you'll see. ~20mW lasing away from the camera.

If you want ~80mW pictures let me know.
 
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Also have a 473nm labby and a 30mW green pointer. Will measure the power required of 473nm to match the 30mW 532nm. I'm back at home on Saturday... from theory to practice!

-mojo-
 
I can do that as well, It's about 190mW 473 to match ~52 mW 532 in my eyes. Getting it on camera is the hard part.
 
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Arayan said:
Here http://laserpointerforums.com/f48/part-my-collection-72051.html#post1037026 some pics on my >80 mW 473 nm pointer and a comparison with other wavelengths :D
Click to expand...

Arayan, those are some gorgeous pics! ;)

Do you know what company the 473nm handheld that you bought from Styropyro if from? Is it from Lasever as well?


mojo_1234 said:
Also have a 473nm labby and a 30mW green pointer. Will measure the power required of 473nm to match the 30mW 532nm. I'm back at home on Saturday... from theory to practice!

-mojo-
Click to expand...

That would be great to see Mojo, I would be curious to see the 473nm side by side with a 532nm to compare what power is needed to match the 30mW green. I already have a 30mW pen style 532nm so I would probably want my 473nm that I will purchase to be at least as bright as the 30mW 532nm.


And thanks again Zraffleticket for helping me figure all this out!
 
No problem!
I do believe his was also from lasever, however styro says it is not. Not sure how many companies actually use that host.
 
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ElectroMagneticFreak said:
Arayan, those are some gorgeous pics! ;)

Do you know what company the 473nm handheld that you bought from Styropyro if from? Is it from Lasever as well?
Click to expand...

Thanks :)
...unfortunately I don't know the source and I have not asked directly to Styro...but it's an amazing pointer ;)
 
Now, I'm doing the research and that has to use 473nm 5mW Laser. Then, I would like to get more information about that such as goods price, Saler or data sheet something like that.

Thank you very much.
 
10mW at night are enough for a good visible beam.

As Fiddy mentioned, the more the better :gun:
 
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