Ok, I’m looking for a factual answer here: I’m wondering what is the best [meaning the most powerful, durable, longest lasting] laser pointer I can buy?
Let’s put the $$$ value at $50 -> $300 bucks.
What will I be doing with it?
Mostly playing with the cats, some pointing to very far away things i.e. islands, mountains etc…etc… average distance of a long point: 1500 meters. I live exactly 1 mile from an island off the coast of Connecticut, I’d love to look into my spotter scope and see a red dot on a structure 1 mile away.
Not for less than $500. Beam divergence of most diode lasers will expand at a rate of 1 to 2 millimeters per meter of distance from the lens, so at one mile, the dot would range from 1.6 to 3.2 meters in diameter. That’s a big dot. And that is if you could even see it at that distance, because the brightness of your typical 5mw laser pointer will diminish to almost imperceptable by the human eye.
Ok so perhaps I should buy two: a small one for the cats and a high powered one. Not to see any of the islands off the coast, but to see how far into the woods behind my house I can see the dot. I’ve seen some pretty high powered ones in the past but I don’t know where to buy them.
You can find them from time to time on ebay, too. Like right now!
Blue ones should come down in price rapidly as the technology is being quickly developed for next generation DVD devices (Blu-Ray/HD-DVD). Informal experiments have shown cats react better to red lasers compared to green. ‘React better’ used here in the more freaking out and fewer kitty yawns sense.