Re: Star Hopping, green laser pointers

[Stephen Murray <murray8@LLNL.GOV>]

> 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.

Prices have come down from the $300 that they used to go for, though
they're still much more expensive than the red pointers.  I got one
recently for about $130.  A very nice feature that I found is that
they're visible out to such a great distance that parallax is
minimal, and so you don't have to be standing next to the student in
order to point to a star.

The only serious problem that I've had is with the "cool factor"--the
students were MUCH more interested in the laser beam shining into the
sky than they were in finding the stars to which I was pointing.


================================
Stephen D. Murray
Physicist, A Division
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Email:  sdmurray@llnl.gov
Phone: (925) 423-9382
FAX:    (925) 423-0925
================================

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