Whats your recommendation on lasers for these applications

Preferrably green, I'm looking for lasers you've bought and are happy with under these applications, it'll give me more information regarding buying lasers than I will ever receive by making one thread after another

I'm not looking for the most expensive laser out there, but if the one you are using happens to be a pricey one, post the name of it anyway if you are happy with it.

Application 1: Presentation/lecture/field pointer
Power: <5mw, green
Range needed: 5 feet to 20 feet depending on how far I am away from the board and how far I am from objects outdoors
Beam Profile: If possible I would like to hide the "line" and just emphasis on the dot, so not alot of power we are working with here.
Price range: up to $100 max, realistically I'd spend only about half of that.
Emphasis: cheap and easily replaceable in the event that it got "borrowed" for good...you know kids these days.:shakehead
Why I ask: Theres alot of choices out there, personally I don't care for button cell red pointers. While they get the point through, they are not as effective as green dots in keeping your audience's eyes glued to the projector curtain.

Application 2: Astronomy
Power: ~25-35mw preferred
Range needed: Anywhere from a couple hundred feet to a mile, depending on the weather.
Beam profile: It doesn't really matter, good collimation if possible.
Price Range: ~$100-$250, $250 max... hopefully the last laser I'll have to buy.
Emphasis: The "line" must be visible regardless of weather conditions [never mind fog or downpour, but haze is always a concern], long duty times since it will be mounted to the scope and will be used to align the scope to a specific star...so chances are it'll be on for awhile.
Why I ask: I have alot of other "colleagues" in the field and I've gotten everything from ebay laser, amazon laser, laser glow, wicked laser, green laser beam, dragon laser, laser sale, etc...each claiming thats the best laser they've owned and only a few has had a second laser for comparison.
Application 3: Astronomy Loaner
Power: ~5-15mW, green
Price Range: ~$100-$150, realistically about $100 under limited budget
Range needed: anywhere from a couple hundred feet to a mile, depending on the weather.
Why I ask: While this may be the same as Application 1, it will be loaned out during star gazing nights either to a colleague or a friend, probably will also be the laser that I use when I'm with the crowd and leaving the big gun at home:nana:

Any advice or recommendations will be appreciated

how about this

I've picked out these two

Laserglow Galileo-5
http://www.laserglow.com/index.php?galileo

Optotronics +55mW premium
http://www.optotronics.com/proddetail.php?prod=glp-55

anyone used these and got good results?

Your looking at some extremely expensive lasers that don't need to be expensive.

That being said, do not get me wrong. Laserglow is one of the best manufacturers for high quality lasers. Hands down they just rock. However, like anything in this world that is "quality" you can also expect a proportional cost. In the instance of a presentation pointer, this is undesireable if your looking at possibly having it stolen.

for recommendations for the "presentation pointer" I'd go with a o-like red 200mw.
(http://o-like.com/b2b_cpinfo.asp?id=926) A high powered green is just too bright in comparison and I'd even say that this one is going to be too bright. However, with some minor modifications (you could do it or I could as an example) you can turn this into a bluray <30mw (which I hear is awesome for presentation pointer) Or, I can build you a laser out of a Kryton barrel for a relatively small amount in literally WHATEVER you want. I recommend you look at http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=176150

Since the barrel is one of the best heatsunk laser pointers on the market now, duty cycle is EXTREMELY long.

Also you might consider some of the laser pointers at dealextreme.com (you can get them in the states by circuitous means)

It seems that the general recommendations have been revolving around dealextreme...which, for personal reasons I try to stay away from the site...theres just something about their lights and lasers that gets to me. Yes, granted that "Quality" can be defined in many ways, but batches under the same sku sometimes varies greatly.

Does 200mw reds show up at all in the night sky?

Your barrels looks awesome, but I've never built a laser from scratch before...
but the kits looks fairly simple

WOW Illum_the_nation you sure put a lot of detail into your post.

My recommendation for a presentation laser pointer is a blue one. Something about a blue laser beam that makes it so hard to resist and would really grab the attention of your audience. Too bad they are so expensive.

The Aurora 5mW blue laser pointer (http://www.dragonlasers.com/home.php?cat=287) is good value.

With a green astronomy pointer, I'd go for some cheap generic model.

Granted the quality at DX is assuredly a grab bag. Sometimes you get good sometimes you don't. I DO know that there has been a modification done to my barrels to make a green fit in, and they are capable of 5-150mw for relatively cheap. Fits right into my barrel with little or no experience and then bam! you have a green laser with excellent heatsinking. The on/off switch is not momentary so it stays on as long as you want.

200mw isn't all that visible in the night sky at all. I live in montana and there are night sky's here that are AMAZINGLY stunning. No lights for MILES and the clarity is breathtaking. That being said, I never could use red for stargazing and I've got a 350mw barrel setup. Green is just far superior in that aspect. Even in a night with no exterior lights for miles, it's just not that visible with red or even bluray for that matter.

As to the blue for presentations. It's been my experience even with green lasers in this type of setting that they are so stark and cool to look at, that the presentation is ignored while you look at the laser. Since blue is so cool to look at in a laser (bluray appears blue on a presentation screen) you completely forget about what is being pointed at. hence the reason I suggest a more powerful red (although too powerful hurt peoples eyes.)

My barrels were designed to be EXTREMELY easy to build. I sell them on ebay as a starter kit in lasers if you will. The only thing that really needs to be purchased seperately is a flexdrive and a 18650 battery. I've even got a build tutorial on the Kryton Grooves on exactly how to put them together.

Ultimately the choice is yours and no amount of suggesting is going to convince you one way or another as personal experience of a thing always differs with the person experiencing it.

whats your ebay address and link to your build?

I'm assuming your asking me for those things. You can find it under the same name Kenom.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Laser-barrel-high-power-laser-pointer-host-kit_W0QQitemZ220352727647QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220352727647&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

A 200mw red is just ridiculous for a presentation pointer. Seriously, a cheap 5mw dx green would be a lot better and WAY safer if a noob picked it up. I understand you don't like DX type places but for the price they really can't be beat.

I didn't say use a 200mw. I said use the host. Or tune it down a little so it's not so powerful. I believe i indicated that it would be bright.

Illum_the_nation said:

Does 200mw reds show up at all in the night sky?

Click to expand...

I've made a direct comparison in various conditions and I can say for sure that a 200mw red (650nm) equals exactly to a 5mw green (532nm) and a 115mw violet (405nm), so unless you need it to pop balloons I suggest you to buy a good 50mw green for starpointing
Ps:Since you've asked, I normally use a Wickedlasers Spyder II GX for starpointing.

Tachikoma said:

I've made a direct comparison in various conditions and I can say for sure that a 200mw red (650nm) equals exactly to a 5mw green (532nm) and a 115mw violet (405nm), so unless you need it to pop balloons I suggest you to buy a good 50mw green for starpointing
Ps:Since you've asked, I normally use a Wickedlasers Spyder II GX for starpointing.

Click to expand...

if popping balloons and lighting match-heads was used to judge how lasers perform would be like saying surefire sucks because they can't start fires

$1,700?! holy cow. I can't imagine what sort of price a 50mw would have under WLs site.

http://www.novalasers.com/NOVAstore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=3&idproduct=13
looks alright, >50mw for $140, never heard of the company though, other than it being a California company

In fact I wouldn't recommend WL to anybody, maybe the Core is the only one worth the price...

Nova sells CNI lasers. They are a great company if a little overpriced. I only mean a little. Seems everyone over at LPF has at least one Nova.. I know your not all that in love with DX but I've got a 30mw green I purchased from them that is putting out 50mw when it warms up. Although you let it get cold and it puts out nothing but IR. But if it's not going to get cold (I'm talking about below 10F) then it should be fine. Hell, I'll even ship it to you so you can take a look at a DX first.