STAR POINTING: Some hand portable lasers that are powerful enough can create a BEAM of light instead of just a dot at night .Due to this awesome Star Wars Type LIGHT SABRE effect that can travel for Hundreds of feet into the dark sky , many people use Green Lasers for pointing out precisely to friends and colleagues particular stars . Most peoples finger cant travel for hundreds of feet accurately unless you are one of Spielberg''s other creations ET . This is a great effect but we would like to advance warn potential purchasers that the utmost care must be taken when pointing ANY laser into the sky avoiding all aircraft as you can be imprisoned for pointng ANY laser at an aircraft also ALL green lasers are temperature sensitive and the output will dim if the unit becomes cold . You will need to keep the laser within normal operating temperatures , as most star pointing takes place outside the casing can easily cool although placing in a pocket for a few minutes is normally enough to warm it up enough for use again the main effect of the cold is loss of output power.

CONSTANT WAVE :Where you see the Term CW this means constant wave , this means the laser diode is constantly on producing a constant wave of laser light , the main advantage of this is that the Laser light is Slightly Brighter than a comparable Pulsed output Green Laser Pointer or hand portable laser.

PULSED :Where you see the Term Pulsed ( NOTE - these are quite rare now ) , this means that the laser diode is switching OFF and ON, , hundreds of times per second . The effects of this is that less battery power is used saving battery power by about 20% , also this prevents the diode from heating marginally extending diode life . The most interesting part of the pulsing effect is that although not seen in normal pointing uses or presentations if you then swipe the laser dot across a wall the effect of a dashed line is seen. Useful for attracting attention and in general a Cool effect of a laser .

DIODE LIFE :Most laser diodes found in green , blue and red laser pointers or hand portable lasers have an effective lifetime of around 3000 Hrs CONSTANT ON , in most cases they will still be living long after you .... that''s a LOT of presentation or experiment hours . Battery lifetime is normally 2-3 hours constant on , the recommended battery for Green Laser is Duracell ULTRA . Unless you use Lasers a LOT during presentations even 2-3 constant on is likely Dozens and Dozens of presentations

Although we cater for some large industrial companies and large research insitutions we know a lot of visitors to our website are enthusiasts .... if you want to know about lasers in detail ... truth be told there ONLY one place, the INFAMOUS SAMS LASER FAQ

There is also some forums dedicated to the laser community

www.photonlexicon.com : Laser Projector Enthusiasts

www.lasertainment.co.uk : Projector and General lasers

www.spectraforum.com : www.lasercommunity.com : www.laserpointerforums.com