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Re: Star Hopping, green laser pointers



At 11:57 AM -0400 10/8/02, Dan MacIsaac wrote:
On Tuesday, October 8, 2002, at 09:42 AM, Edmiston, Mike wrote:

With respect to pointing things out...

Denker's use of bright flashlights is good. Sometimes I use an old
refractor telescope as a pointer. It could be a stick or rod, but the
old refractor is already on a mount. I point it at the object and
students site along it rather than through it. I just say, "look where
that telescope is pointing." Students are a bit more willing to get
close to the scope and sight along it rather than get real close to me
and sight along my arm. Also, the telescope doesn't get as tired as my
arm gets.

I'd like to get one of the bright-green laser pointers and see if they
work, but they are not cheap. Has anyone tried one of these as a star
pointer?

I've seen a cheap (for the car powered version, anyways) million
candlepower flashlight / searchlight from WalMart used with great
success. Lots of backscatter and a nice long, bright pointing beam.
You have to be very careful of your night vision and not allow student
to use it w/o close supervision, as they instinctively use it on
people's faces.

We used to use the million candle-power searchlight thingies but we've have
found the green laser pointers to be so superior (and worth every penny of
the $300 they cost) that we don't use the searchlights or flashlights any
more. The green lasers are advertised as star pointers in Astonomy and Sky
& Telescope and they work fabulously. Very highly recommended.

Larry Smith

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.