Green laser pointer for full moon nights

[PeterWar]

Greetings, first post on this forums!

I work as an astronomer for professional outreach sessions in public and I've been using a 30mW 532nm Flashlight Style 850 Type Green Laser Pointer Pen with 16340 Battery that I bought from laserpointerpro a year ago with great success on moonless nights.

A few months ago I noticed that the laser was nowhere near as efective on full moon nights as there is much more light, so I decided to buy a second 50mw laser from laserpointerpro. To my surprise, the 50mW laser wasn't brighter than the 30mW in any way.

I've now seen the introductory post in this forums, they've been very helpful at confirming that there are many consistency problems on most of the lasers sold today.


Could you please recommend a good quality green laser for full moon nights?

Idealy, my requirements would be:

1- Laser needs to be have a battery that lasts several sessions.

2- Laser beam should be bright, but any hazard of burning something or hurting someone would need to be minimized if possible.

3- If possible laser should have a wirst strap.

4- Shipment prices to Europe should be reasonable.

Thank you in advance for your input!

 

[steve001]

Good companies.

Sanwu Laser.

Jet Lasers.org

 

[paul1598419]

You would do better buying 303 lasers on eBay than buying anything from laserpointerpro. The 532nm ones run anywhere from $6.00 to $10.00 each depending on the accessories you want to get with them. Typically these can output 80 mW, but it is a crap shoot, so buy three or four from different sellers. That way you can have four of these lasers for ~$30.00.

 

[gallileo60]

I can second the 303 for nights when the moon is out..I use a couple of them for both pointing, and as a finder on some of my Narrow Field Refractors...(yeah, I know) There is much debate on the finder use, but it serves me well...

 

[cornweda]

I own quite a few laser pointers and I have been using three different ones for astronomy. For alignment, I am currently using the $20 Laserland 510nm diode (pen style) laser. It works in the cold and is bright enough for telescope alignment purposes. I also have the pocket Sanwu 520nm 50mw diode laser for $90 that also works in the cold. Sanwu also makes a 150mw green diode pocket laser for $20 more. I also have a cheap $8 DPSS 532nm pen style laser that is very bright, but does not work in the cold. I am guessing this cheap pen laser is >100mw (luck of the draw), since it is much brighter than my 50mw lasers. It will burn unfocused up close, since it has a pencil thin beam and very low divergence. I have some rechargeable green DPSS lasers from laserpointerpro that are penstyle and cost around $20, but they were not as bright as the $8 eBay laser. They were advertised as 200mw but I am guessing they are < 100mw, still not bad lasers.

The problem with using a laser for pointing depends on how far away the crowd is from the laser and the atmospheric conditions. Lasers have a bit of an optical illusion of having a much brighter beam looking down the beam rather than off to the side. So for alignment I do not need as bright a lasers as for star pointing for crowds. The $8 Ebay laser works great for star pointing, but not when it gets cold. The $110 150mw Sanwu laser would also work fine in all conditions. So power required will depend on how far away from the laser the crowd will be and atmospheric conditions.

 

[PeterWar]

My 303 lasers died after two years of use. I'm really interested to buy some high quality, certified IR safe laser in Europe. Any ideas?

 

[bulukaki]

My 303 lasers died after two years of use. I'm really interested to buy some high quality, certified IR safe laser in Europe. Any ideas?

Green lasers other than 532nm are usually direct diode lasers -- they don't emit IR at all.

As other members have mentioned: Sanwu Laser, JetLasers, laserlands (ebay)

 

[RA_pierce]

I can't speak to any good companies in Europe but I can comment on some other aspects of your post...

100 mW or more of green light should be bright enough for full moon nights.
However, there is an inherent and unavoidable risk of injury at this power, so you will need to be careful about how you use the laser.
Direct eye exposure for any laser above 5 mW is hazardous and as power increases, indirect exposure (reflections) also become more hazardous (not trying to scare you, just a warning).

Many countries have import restrictions on portable lasers. Check the laws of your country before ordering anything internationally.

 

[rustynuts]

As a amature astronomer when i do public sessions i use a 50mw green pointer from dragon lasers made by CNI.
it gives a nice tight 532nm beam . used it for over 10 years now with no issues. Also i tied a 80mw CNI pointer visually not much bighter but with lousy battery life.
normally full moon is the worst time for astronomy outreach but if you do, lets say for pointing out the brightest objects, 50mw is plenty bright enough with a good battery life.
I have verified power with a laserbee power meter And for safty reasons to check if the pointers have a good ir filter.
Be sure to keep them out of kids hands!
they usually will ask for a go with it.
telescopes i use /own for public outreach are celestron102f, xt 10 and c9.25 and lomo 80mm super apo.
Jon