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So, how does my laser work? It works GREAT! Exactly as described - a green beam of light protrudes up and more or less stops right on the object you are pointing to. The end of the beam is a bit more blurry, and fades slightly, but it really seems to have an end where the beam essentially stops. It's extremly apparent what you are pointing to. I haven't yet tested to see how far away from me it remains visible, although people standing six feet away from me have been able to see it without a problem. What about light pollution? Many web sites say that in light-polluted conditions you won't see the beam, and you'll need more power. I suppose it depends on what they mean. The first time I used it, I was in a rural area, although not very far from the city, and there was a setting gibbous moon. Limiting magnitude was around 5.0, maybe 5.5. The laser was bright and easy to see. I've also used it in Cambridge Massachusetts, easily one of the most light-polluted cities on this planet. On the best moonless nights, limiting magnitude is 4.0. Again, the laser is easily visible, not quite bright, but not dim either. However, this only accounts for the light pollution - I was on a dark rooftop on a slight hill above other lights. So the light pollution was in place, but I had no lights in my eyes. If, by light pollution, you mean standing on a brightly lit street with a street light above you, then no, you won't see the beam. But if you mean, can you see it from a dark spot in the worst light-polluted sky imaginable? Yes, you can see it. Just for perspective, I used it about 45 minutes after sunset. The sky was still quite bright, with 20 minutes of nautical twilight left, and an hour of astronomical twilight. Limiting magnitude was perhaps 3.5. The beam was visible in these conditions. Dim, but unmistakably visible. These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

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High PowerGreen Laser Pointer

I've also used it in Cambridge Massachusetts, easily one of the most light-polluted cities on this planet. On the best moonless nights, limiting magnitude is 4.0. Again, the laser is easily visible, not quite bright, but not dim either. However, this only accounts for the light pollution - I was on a dark rooftop on a slight hill above other lights. So the light pollution was in place, but I had no lights in my eyes. If, by light pollution, you mean standing on a brightly lit street with a street light above you, then no, you won't see the beam. But if you mean, can you see it from a dark spot in the worst light-polluted sky imaginable? Yes, you can see it. Just for perspective, I used it about 45 minutes after sunset. The sky was still quite bright, with 20 minutes of nautical twilight left, and an hour of astronomical twilight. Limiting magnitude was perhaps 3.5. The beam was visible in these conditions. Dim, but unmistakably visible. These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

Exit PupilExit pupil is the diameter (in mm) of the light path or beam exiting the eyepiece. The human iris in our eye, when fully dilated, can be up to 7mm wide in younger people and gets smaller with age to around 5mm wide in older people. We can calculate exit pupil for any eyepiece and telescope combination by using the following formula: Eyepiece focal length ÷ Telescope f/# = Exit Pupil (mm)

Pointer laser greenprice

Finally, why green? Our eyes are most sensitive to green light. The same measured power output of a red laser would not produce a visible beam, because our eyes aren't as sensitive to red. By the time we could see a red laser, it would probably be reaching a dangerous level of intensity. BTG-6-plus Z-bolt offers several green laster pointers in the IIIa class. Note that these are often referred to as 5mW lasers, but they always have to be less. From everything I've read, there is a lot of variation in how much under 5mW the lasers are. I'm not sure how much to believe, but some claim that you can end up with as little as 1.5 mW from some of these products. For this reason, I chose the BTG-6-plus, because this particular product is guaranteed to be tested by Beam-of-Light to be between 4.5 and 5mW limit. Mine actually came with a hand-written sticker on it that said 4.92 mW. It also came in a very nice wooden box, and a pair of batteries. For my order, they were also giving away a free red laser pointer with it. I don't much care about this, but the free red laser pointer was packed into a second plastic foam case, which was much too big for the red laser pointer, but perfect for the green one. I don't know if they always give out this second case for the green pointer, but if you buy a pointer from them I suggest you ask them about it. The wooden box is very nice, but not very practical. The plastic foam case on the other hand is much more practical for slipping into your pocket or some luggage, and it provides nice protection. It closes with a flap that has two snaps in it, and it has slots for a spare pair of batteries. This is the case I'll be using whenever I'm carrying this pointer. So, how does my laser work? It works GREAT! Exactly as described - a green beam of light protrudes up and more or less stops right on the object you are pointing to. The end of the beam is a bit more blurry, and fades slightly, but it really seems to have an end where the beam essentially stops. It's extremly apparent what you are pointing to. I haven't yet tested to see how far away from me it remains visible, although people standing six feet away from me have been able to see it without a problem. What about light pollution? Many web sites say that in light-polluted conditions you won't see the beam, and you'll need more power. I suppose it depends on what they mean. The first time I used it, I was in a rural area, although not very far from the city, and there was a setting gibbous moon. Limiting magnitude was around 5.0, maybe 5.5. The laser was bright and easy to see. I've also used it in Cambridge Massachusetts, easily one of the most light-polluted cities on this planet. On the best moonless nights, limiting magnitude is 4.0. Again, the laser is easily visible, not quite bright, but not dim either. However, this only accounts for the light pollution - I was on a dark rooftop on a slight hill above other lights. So the light pollution was in place, but I had no lights in my eyes. If, by light pollution, you mean standing on a brightly lit street with a street light above you, then no, you won't see the beam. But if you mean, can you see it from a dark spot in the worst light-polluted sky imaginable? Yes, you can see it. Just for perspective, I used it about 45 minutes after sunset. The sky was still quite bright, with 20 minutes of nautical twilight left, and an hour of astronomical twilight. Limiting magnitude was perhaps 3.5. The beam was visible in these conditions. Dim, but unmistakably visible. These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

Many entry-level telescopes come with 10mm (high power) and 25mm (low power) Plossl eyepieces. While these eyepieces can be fine for kids and adults who are just getting started, you will see a drastic improvement in the view if you invest in some quality eyepieces. For this reason, if you have enough budget to shop with, we recommend reserving a portion of it for a nice quality eyepiece or two.

For example, if you have a telescope of 1000mm in focal length and your eyepiece is 25mm, then you have a magnification of 40x. When we talk about a low magnification like this, it is known as low power. If you swapped out the 25mm eyepiece for one with a 5mm focal length, the magnification jumps to 200x, known as high power.

The planets are small — and we mean really small — when viewed from Earth, much smaller than most deep sky objects! For that reason, you need a high-power eyepiece, good sky conditions, and ideally a large aperture telescope to see the planets well. For most telescopes, high-power eyepieces begin under 10mm in focal length, but this depends on which telescope is used, too. You can also use a Barlow lens which can magnify the view by 2x or more, but just be sure it's good quality otherwise it may worsen the view.

Green Laser pointer10000mw

What to look for: When observing faint deep sky objects, we want as close to a 5-7mm exit pupil as we can get because it means we're letting our eye take full advantage of the telescope's light-gathering ability. For planetary observing, the objects are so bright that a smaller exit pupil can be used, such as 1-2mm.

These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

Just for perspective, I used it about 45 minutes after sunset. The sky was still quite bright, with 20 minutes of nautical twilight left, and an hour of astronomical twilight. Limiting magnitude was perhaps 3.5. The beam was visible in these conditions. Dim, but unmistakably visible. These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

Green Laser Pointernear me

For any budding visual observer, it is recommended to start off with three eyepieces to start: one low-power, one medium-power, and one high-power. You can, of course, start off with just two or even one. Since many objects in the night sky vary in size and the conditions of the atmosphere can change, it's best to have a few different focal length eyepieces to choose from.

By being able to zoom in and out between multiple focal lengths, zoom eyepieces can provide unmatched versatility. Some zoom eyepieces can combine low, medium, and high power magnifications all in one eyepiece. For that reason, if you only are able to bring one eyepiece with you when heading out to observe or want the convenience of not having to swap out eyepieces, a zoom can be a great choice. Some higher-quality zoom eyepieces can be a better overall choice than entry-level eyepiece kits. In terms of performance, fixed focal length eyepieces usually perform better optically than zooms, but they can be more costly for a full set. Because zoom eyepieces need the ability to move in and out, their field of view is usually smaller and more limited than fixed focal length eyepieces. All in all, though, a zoom eyepiece can be a great affordable option for beginner and intermediate observers.

0.965" and 3" eyepieces are much less common. 0.965" was an older standard eyepiece size that has since been replaced by the more common 1.25" size. 3" eyepieces are even more rare, and are only useful on very large telescopes.

Having said that, these things are damn bright. If you hit a car driver at night with this, he'd be effectively blinded for at least a few seconds afterwards -- long enough to crash and die and have you go to prison for manslaughter. These are not toys for children. They should never be shined at people ever, and most especially not cars or planes. Finally, why green? Our eyes are most sensitive to green light. The same measured power output of a red laser would not produce a visible beam, because our eyes aren't as sensitive to red. By the time we could see a red laser, it would probably be reaching a dangerous level of intensity. BTG-6-plus Z-bolt offers several green laster pointers in the IIIa class. Note that these are often referred to as 5mW lasers, but they always have to be less. From everything I've read, there is a lot of variation in how much under 5mW the lasers are. I'm not sure how much to believe, but some claim that you can end up with as little as 1.5 mW from some of these products. For this reason, I chose the BTG-6-plus, because this particular product is guaranteed to be tested by Beam-of-Light to be between 4.5 and 5mW limit. Mine actually came with a hand-written sticker on it that said 4.92 mW. It also came in a very nice wooden box, and a pair of batteries. For my order, they were also giving away a free red laser pointer with it. I don't much care about this, but the free red laser pointer was packed into a second plastic foam case, which was much too big for the red laser pointer, but perfect for the green one. I don't know if they always give out this second case for the green pointer, but if you buy a pointer from them I suggest you ask them about it. The wooden box is very nice, but not very practical. The plastic foam case on the other hand is much more practical for slipping into your pocket or some luggage, and it provides nice protection. It closes with a flap that has two snaps in it, and it has slots for a spare pair of batteries. This is the case I'll be using whenever I'm carrying this pointer. So, how does my laser work? It works GREAT! Exactly as described - a green beam of light protrudes up and more or less stops right on the object you are pointing to. The end of the beam is a bit more blurry, and fades slightly, but it really seems to have an end where the beam essentially stops. It's extremly apparent what you are pointing to. I haven't yet tested to see how far away from me it remains visible, although people standing six feet away from me have been able to see it without a problem. What about light pollution? Many web sites say that in light-polluted conditions you won't see the beam, and you'll need more power. I suppose it depends on what they mean. The first time I used it, I was in a rural area, although not very far from the city, and there was a setting gibbous moon. Limiting magnitude was around 5.0, maybe 5.5. The laser was bright and easy to see. I've also used it in Cambridge Massachusetts, easily one of the most light-polluted cities on this planet. On the best moonless nights, limiting magnitude is 4.0. Again, the laser is easily visible, not quite bright, but not dim either. However, this only accounts for the light pollution - I was on a dark rooftop on a slight hill above other lights. So the light pollution was in place, but I had no lights in my eyes. If, by light pollution, you mean standing on a brightly lit street with a street light above you, then no, you won't see the beam. But if you mean, can you see it from a dark spot in the worst light-polluted sky imaginable? Yes, you can see it. Just for perspective, I used it about 45 minutes after sunset. The sky was still quite bright, with 20 minutes of nautical twilight left, and an hour of astronomical twilight. Limiting magnitude was perhaps 3.5. The beam was visible in these conditions. Dim, but unmistakably visible. These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

Make sure to also buy the correct sized eyepieces for your telescope. Many beginner telescopes can only accept 1.25" eyepieces, so a 2" eyepiece won't fit.

The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

Medium focal length eyepieces are a nice middle-ground between short and long focal length eyepieces and can provide the missing link between the two. Medium focal length eyepieces generally fall between 10 to 20mm. When a long focal length eyepiece is too wide and short focal length is too narrow, a medium focal length eyepiece can often give that "just right" view. That being said, a medium focal length eyepiece is usually a great addition to any visual observer's collection. The biggest benefit of medium focal length eyepieces is that when sky conditions are poor and a high-power eyepiece is out of the question, a medium focal length eyepiece can still provide relatively close-up views without seeing too much blurring or shakiness caused by a turbulent atmosphere.

Although it depends on the telescope, long focal length eyepieces are usually ideal for viewing large objects like the Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion Nebula, and the full disc of the moon. Long focal length eyepieces are generally considered to begin around 20mm and higher and give low power views. One of the greatest benefits of long focal length eyepieces is that they inherently have a long eye relief, which translates to comfortable viewing even with entry-level eyepieces. Another benefit is that no matter what the sky conditions are, a long focal length eyepiece still usually gives a great view because they're not as affected by atmospheric distortions. Long focal length eyepieces are not usually a good match for close-up views like planets or other small objects, but we recommend everyone have one in their eyepiece arsenal.

Pointer laser greenamazon

It also came in a very nice wooden box, and a pair of batteries. For my order, they were also giving away a free red laser pointer with it. I don't much care about this, but the free red laser pointer was packed into a second plastic foam case, which was much too big for the red laser pointer, but perfect for the green one. I don't know if they always give out this second case for the green pointer, but if you buy a pointer from them I suggest you ask them about it. The wooden box is very nice, but not very practical. The plastic foam case on the other hand is much more practical for slipping into your pocket or some luggage, and it provides nice protection. It closes with a flap that has two snaps in it, and it has slots for a spare pair of batteries. This is the case I'll be using whenever I'm carrying this pointer. So, how does my laser work? It works GREAT! Exactly as described - a green beam of light protrudes up and more or less stops right on the object you are pointing to. The end of the beam is a bit more blurry, and fades slightly, but it really seems to have an end where the beam essentially stops. It's extremly apparent what you are pointing to. I haven't yet tested to see how far away from me it remains visible, although people standing six feet away from me have been able to see it without a problem. What about light pollution? Many web sites say that in light-polluted conditions you won't see the beam, and you'll need more power. I suppose it depends on what they mean. The first time I used it, I was in a rural area, although not very far from the city, and there was a setting gibbous moon. Limiting magnitude was around 5.0, maybe 5.5. The laser was bright and easy to see. I've also used it in Cambridge Massachusetts, easily one of the most light-polluted cities on this planet. On the best moonless nights, limiting magnitude is 4.0. Again, the laser is easily visible, not quite bright, but not dim either. However, this only accounts for the light pollution - I was on a dark rooftop on a slight hill above other lights. So the light pollution was in place, but I had no lights in my eyes. If, by light pollution, you mean standing on a brightly lit street with a street light above you, then no, you won't see the beam. But if you mean, can you see it from a dark spot in the worst light-polluted sky imaginable? Yes, you can see it. Just for perspective, I used it about 45 minutes after sunset. The sky was still quite bright, with 20 minutes of nautical twilight left, and an hour of astronomical twilight. Limiting magnitude was perhaps 3.5. The beam was visible in these conditions. Dim, but unmistakably visible. These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

Focal LengthFocal length is an eyepiece’s most important feature. Eyepiece focal lengths usually range from around 2mm to 60mm. Contrary to telescopes, a longer focal length eyepiece actually gives a wider (low power) view, and a shorter focal length eyepiece gives a narrower (high power) view.What to look for: Low power eyepieces, such as a 30mm eyepiece, are best for viewing faint deep sky objects and large objects like the full disc of the moon. High power eyepieces are best for viewing planets and other objects up close.Apparent Field of View (AFOV)An eyepiece’s apparent field of view is how wide of a view, measured in degrees, that an eyepiece gives when looking through it. The human eye’s full field of vision is around 120º. The larger the apparent field of view that an eyepiece has, the more it feels like you’re immersing yourself into space when looking through it. This is known as the “spacewalk” effect. Wide AFOV eyepieces also allow for easier use of averted vision observing on deep sky objects, which is the practice of looking slightly away from an object to see it in more detail.What to look for: Eyepieces with a wide apparent field of view, such as 82º, 100º, or even higher, can give an incredible view that feels like you’re immersed in space. These ultra-wide AFOV eyepieces can get expensive, though, and if you’re just observing planets, a wide AFOV eyepiece is not necessarily needed.Eye ReliefEye relief is how far your eye needs to be from the eyepiece for the image to appear in focus. Eyepieces with a long eye relief (like 20mm) are more comfortable than short eye relief (like 10mm). When trying to hold still like when looking through an eyepiece, our heads naturally move slightly. The closer your eye is to the eyepiece, the more exaggerated the movements of your head will seem, which may even cause the image to drift out of view. For this reason, eyepieces with a longer eye relief is preferred. Those who wear glasses will need a long eye relief eyepiece.What to look for: Eyepieces with a longer eye relief, ideally 15mm or more, are almost always preferred as they’ll make it easier to look through. If you wear eyeglasses, having an eye relief of 15mm or more should be considered essential, and ideally you’ll want to find an eyepiece with closer to 20mm of eye relief.

Short focal length eyepieces, when the sky conditions are right, can give jaw-dropping views of objects like the planets and extreme close-ups of the craters on the moon, among other tiny objects in the night sky. Generally categorized as below 10mm in focal length, these eyepieces will yield a higher power magnification than medium or long focal length eyepieces. Observing at high power isn't always possible due to distortions in the atmosphere. At very high power magnifications, a short focal length eyepiece may only appear to make the object blurrier. For this reason, you should reserve using your short focal length eyepieces for when the atmosphere is the most still. When the atmosphere cooperates, though, short focal length eyepieces can give views that you'll remember for a lifetime.

No rainchecks will be issued for items out of stock at OPTcorp.com to match a competitor's price. We do not price match competitors if they are out of stock.

Pointer laser greenfor sale

Green laser background There is a class of lasers, IIIa, which by law must be less than 5mW (of measured optical output, not electrical input). This class is legal to sell in the United States, and legal to operate outside in the United States (local or state exceptions may exist) provided you don't do anything stupid. Shining the laser at aircraft in flight, or moving cars, or other equally moronic acts can easily land you in prison for an extended time (and rightly so). Apparently a man who wanted to see if he could hit airplanes as they were landing was in fact successful. Thankfully, none of the pilots crashed, but the man was reported to have received a seven year prison sentence. The next higher class, IIIb ranges from 5 to 500 mW. You can also legally purchase this class of laser in the United States. But there are restrictions on it's use, because these lasers are capable of permanently damaging vision. You can't use it in an environment where the beam could escape to the outside. To be explicit here, this means you can't legally use them outside. Now you may want to adopt a "no blood, no foul" attitude, and that's fine for you. But just know that if you ever make a mistake, or run into a narrow-minded individual, you don't have a legal leg to stand on - prepare for a good screwing. Furthermore, based on my own <5mW product, there is no reason outside of inferiority complex to get a higher power product for astronomical use. So how safe are these things (the sub-5mW class IIIa version)? They won't burn you. They won't cause permanent eye damage. Tests were performed on individuals who were scheduled to have an eye removed for medical reasons. For the purposes of the test, the eye was normally functioning. Test subjects stared directly at 5 mW lasers with there to-be-removed eye for five to fifteen minutes from various angles. No permanent eye damage occured. Some changes in tissue were noticed. Of course, in a real-world incident, laser light entering the eye would likely last for less than one second, as people naturally look away from bright things and close their eyes, so there is no real danger of direct damage. Having said that, these things are damn bright. If you hit a car driver at night with this, he'd be effectively blinded for at least a few seconds afterwards -- long enough to crash and die and have you go to prison for manslaughter. These are not toys for children. They should never be shined at people ever, and most especially not cars or planes. Finally, why green? Our eyes are most sensitive to green light. The same measured power output of a red laser would not produce a visible beam, because our eyes aren't as sensitive to red. By the time we could see a red laser, it would probably be reaching a dangerous level of intensity. BTG-6-plus Z-bolt offers several green laster pointers in the IIIa class. Note that these are often referred to as 5mW lasers, but they always have to be less. From everything I've read, there is a lot of variation in how much under 5mW the lasers are. I'm not sure how much to believe, but some claim that you can end up with as little as 1.5 mW from some of these products. For this reason, I chose the BTG-6-plus, because this particular product is guaranteed to be tested by Beam-of-Light to be between 4.5 and 5mW limit. Mine actually came with a hand-written sticker on it that said 4.92 mW. It also came in a very nice wooden box, and a pair of batteries. For my order, they were also giving away a free red laser pointer with it. I don't much care about this, but the free red laser pointer was packed into a second plastic foam case, which was much too big for the red laser pointer, but perfect for the green one. I don't know if they always give out this second case for the green pointer, but if you buy a pointer from them I suggest you ask them about it. The wooden box is very nice, but not very practical. The plastic foam case on the other hand is much more practical for slipping into your pocket or some luggage, and it provides nice protection. It closes with a flap that has two snaps in it, and it has slots for a spare pair of batteries. This is the case I'll be using whenever I'm carrying this pointer. So, how does my laser work? It works GREAT! Exactly as described - a green beam of light protrudes up and more or less stops right on the object you are pointing to. The end of the beam is a bit more blurry, and fades slightly, but it really seems to have an end where the beam essentially stops. It's extremly apparent what you are pointing to. I haven't yet tested to see how far away from me it remains visible, although people standing six feet away from me have been able to see it without a problem. What about light pollution? Many web sites say that in light-polluted conditions you won't see the beam, and you'll need more power. I suppose it depends on what they mean. The first time I used it, I was in a rural area, although not very far from the city, and there was a setting gibbous moon. Limiting magnitude was around 5.0, maybe 5.5. The laser was bright and easy to see. I've also used it in Cambridge Massachusetts, easily one of the most light-polluted cities on this planet. On the best moonless nights, limiting magnitude is 4.0. Again, the laser is easily visible, not quite bright, but not dim either. However, this only accounts for the light pollution - I was on a dark rooftop on a slight hill above other lights. So the light pollution was in place, but I had no lights in my eyes. If, by light pollution, you mean standing on a brightly lit street with a street light above you, then no, you won't see the beam. But if you mean, can you see it from a dark spot in the worst light-polluted sky imaginable? Yes, you can see it. Just for perspective, I used it about 45 minutes after sunset. The sky was still quite bright, with 20 minutes of nautical twilight left, and an hour of astronomical twilight. Limiting magnitude was perhaps 3.5. The beam was visible in these conditions. Dim, but unmistakably visible. These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

The next higher class, IIIb ranges from 5 to 500 mW. You can also legally purchase this class of laser in the United States. But there are restrictions on it's use, because these lasers are capable of permanently damaging vision. You can't use it in an environment where the beam could escape to the outside. To be explicit here, this means you can't legally use them outside. Now you may want to adopt a "no blood, no foul" attitude, and that's fine for you. But just know that if you ever make a mistake, or run into a narrow-minded individual, you don't have a legal leg to stand on - prepare for a good screwing. Furthermore, based on my own <5mW product, there is no reason outside of inferiority complex to get a higher power product for astronomical use. So how safe are these things (the sub-5mW class IIIa version)? They won't burn you. They won't cause permanent eye damage. Tests were performed on individuals who were scheduled to have an eye removed for medical reasons. For the purposes of the test, the eye was normally functioning. Test subjects stared directly at 5 mW lasers with there to-be-removed eye for five to fifteen minutes from various angles. No permanent eye damage occured. Some changes in tissue were noticed. Of course, in a real-world incident, laser light entering the eye would likely last for less than one second, as people naturally look away from bright things and close their eyes, so there is no real danger of direct damage. Having said that, these things are damn bright. If you hit a car driver at night with this, he'd be effectively blinded for at least a few seconds afterwards -- long enough to crash and die and have you go to prison for manslaughter. These are not toys for children. They should never be shined at people ever, and most especially not cars or planes. Finally, why green? Our eyes are most sensitive to green light. The same measured power output of a red laser would not produce a visible beam, because our eyes aren't as sensitive to red. By the time we could see a red laser, it would probably be reaching a dangerous level of intensity. BTG-6-plus Z-bolt offers several green laster pointers in the IIIa class. Note that these are often referred to as 5mW lasers, but they always have to be less. From everything I've read, there is a lot of variation in how much under 5mW the lasers are. I'm not sure how much to believe, but some claim that you can end up with as little as 1.5 mW from some of these products. For this reason, I chose the BTG-6-plus, because this particular product is guaranteed to be tested by Beam-of-Light to be between 4.5 and 5mW limit. Mine actually came with a hand-written sticker on it that said 4.92 mW. It also came in a very nice wooden box, and a pair of batteries. For my order, they were also giving away a free red laser pointer with it. I don't much care about this, but the free red laser pointer was packed into a second plastic foam case, which was much too big for the red laser pointer, but perfect for the green one. I don't know if they always give out this second case for the green pointer, but if you buy a pointer from them I suggest you ask them about it. The wooden box is very nice, but not very practical. The plastic foam case on the other hand is much more practical for slipping into your pocket or some luggage, and it provides nice protection. It closes with a flap that has two snaps in it, and it has slots for a spare pair of batteries. This is the case I'll be using whenever I'm carrying this pointer. So, how does my laser work? It works GREAT! Exactly as described - a green beam of light protrudes up and more or less stops right on the object you are pointing to. The end of the beam is a bit more blurry, and fades slightly, but it really seems to have an end where the beam essentially stops. It's extremly apparent what you are pointing to. I haven't yet tested to see how far away from me it remains visible, although people standing six feet away from me have been able to see it without a problem. What about light pollution? Many web sites say that in light-polluted conditions you won't see the beam, and you'll need more power. I suppose it depends on what they mean. The first time I used it, I was in a rural area, although not very far from the city, and there was a setting gibbous moon. Limiting magnitude was around 5.0, maybe 5.5. The laser was bright and easy to see. I've also used it in Cambridge Massachusetts, easily one of the most light-polluted cities on this planet. On the best moonless nights, limiting magnitude is 4.0. Again, the laser is easily visible, not quite bright, but not dim either. However, this only accounts for the light pollution - I was on a dark rooftop on a slight hill above other lights. So the light pollution was in place, but I had no lights in my eyes. If, by light pollution, you mean standing on a brightly lit street with a street light above you, then no, you won't see the beam. But if you mean, can you see it from a dark spot in the worst light-polluted sky imaginable? Yes, you can see it. Just for perspective, I used it about 45 minutes after sunset. The sky was still quite bright, with 20 minutes of nautical twilight left, and an hour of astronomical twilight. Limiting magnitude was perhaps 3.5. The beam was visible in these conditions. Dim, but unmistakably visible. These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

Green laser pointerdistance

Something many telescope owners don't realize is that the eyepiece you're using is just as important as the telescope itself. With a low-quality eyepiece, even the best telescopes can give poor views. Find out which qualities to look for when shopping for eyepieces.

So high power eyepieces are better, right? Not always! Using a low or medium power eyepiece has its benefits. For one, the sky conditions and how shaky the atmosphere is can greatly impact the view through an eyepiece. This turbulence in the atmosphere, known as seeing, can change from night to night, hour to hour, minute to minute, and even second to second. When seeing is poor and the view is slightly blurry, a high power eyepiece is only going to magnify that blur.

Yes, eyepieces are universal in that you can use any 2" eyepiece in a 2" telescope focuser. You can also size up an eyepiece — like use a 1.25" eyepiece in a 2" telescope focuser — as long as you have the correct adapter. You cannot, however, use a larger eyepiece with a 2" barrel in a smaller 1.25" telescope focuser. Some eyepieces do offer the ability to be used as both 2" or 1.25", so be sure to look out for those if you have two or more telescopes with different sized focusers.

If you want to learn even more about eyepiece fundamentals, head to our blog post titled A Guide To Choosing The Best Telescope Eyepieces. Now let's dive in to the types of eyepieces out there.

Bestgreen laser pointer

This number refers to the diameter of the eyepiece where it attaches to the telescope's star diagonal, focuser, or visual back. Almost all entry-level telescopes can accept 1.25" barrel size eyepieces. Intermediate and advanced level telescopes usually accept 2" eyepieces. These larger eyepieces allow for a wider field of view.

Contrary to planets which require a high-power eyepiece, most deep sky objects are best observed with a low or medium power eyepiece. For most telescopes, that usually means an eyepiece with focal length above 10mm. Since deep sky objects vary so much in size, it's best to have at least 2-3 different focal lengths to choose from. Large aperture telescopes will also be able to resolve fainter deep sky objects with more detail.

The price for an item/offer must be listed and valid at the time of match. We reserve the right to verify a competitor's advertised price and the availability of the item.

Another reason you may want to avoid high power is because of limitations of your telescope. With telescopes, the larger the aperture, the more detail it can resolve. In contrast, the smaller the aperture, the less detail it can resolve. An easy rule of thumb is to take your telescope's aperture in millimeters and multiply it by two to get your maximum useful magnification:

This depends on the telescope, but almost all telescopes (with the exception of some scopes designed specifically for astrophotography) come with a star diagonal, focuser, or visual back that can accept eyepieces. Eyepieces slide in to this opening and are held in place by set screws. For refractor and Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, a star diagonal makes for comfortable viewing if your telescope did not come with one.

So how safe are these things (the sub-5mW class IIIa version)? They won't burn you. They won't cause permanent eye damage. Tests were performed on individuals who were scheduled to have an eye removed for medical reasons. For the purposes of the test, the eye was normally functioning. Test subjects stared directly at 5 mW lasers with there to-be-removed eye for five to fifteen minutes from various angles. No permanent eye damage occured. Some changes in tissue were noticed. Of course, in a real-world incident, laser light entering the eye would likely last for less than one second, as people naturally look away from bright things and close their eyes, so there is no real danger of direct damage. Having said that, these things are damn bright. If you hit a car driver at night with this, he'd be effectively blinded for at least a few seconds afterwards -- long enough to crash and die and have you go to prison for manslaughter. These are not toys for children. They should never be shined at people ever, and most especially not cars or planes. Finally, why green? Our eyes are most sensitive to green light. The same measured power output of a red laser would not produce a visible beam, because our eyes aren't as sensitive to red. By the time we could see a red laser, it would probably be reaching a dangerous level of intensity. BTG-6-plus Z-bolt offers several green laster pointers in the IIIa class. Note that these are often referred to as 5mW lasers, but they always have to be less. From everything I've read, there is a lot of variation in how much under 5mW the lasers are. I'm not sure how much to believe, but some claim that you can end up with as little as 1.5 mW from some of these products. For this reason, I chose the BTG-6-plus, because this particular product is guaranteed to be tested by Beam-of-Light to be between 4.5 and 5mW limit. Mine actually came with a hand-written sticker on it that said 4.92 mW. It also came in a very nice wooden box, and a pair of batteries. For my order, they were also giving away a free red laser pointer with it. I don't much care about this, but the free red laser pointer was packed into a second plastic foam case, which was much too big for the red laser pointer, but perfect for the green one. I don't know if they always give out this second case for the green pointer, but if you buy a pointer from them I suggest you ask them about it. The wooden box is very nice, but not very practical. The plastic foam case on the other hand is much more practical for slipping into your pocket or some luggage, and it provides nice protection. It closes with a flap that has two snaps in it, and it has slots for a spare pair of batteries. This is the case I'll be using whenever I'm carrying this pointer. So, how does my laser work? It works GREAT! Exactly as described - a green beam of light protrudes up and more or less stops right on the object you are pointing to. The end of the beam is a bit more blurry, and fades slightly, but it really seems to have an end where the beam essentially stops. It's extremly apparent what you are pointing to. I haven't yet tested to see how far away from me it remains visible, although people standing six feet away from me have been able to see it without a problem. What about light pollution? Many web sites say that in light-polluted conditions you won't see the beam, and you'll need more power. I suppose it depends on what they mean. The first time I used it, I was in a rural area, although not very far from the city, and there was a setting gibbous moon. Limiting magnitude was around 5.0, maybe 5.5. The laser was bright and easy to see. I've also used it in Cambridge Massachusetts, easily one of the most light-polluted cities on this planet. On the best moonless nights, limiting magnitude is 4.0. Again, the laser is easily visible, not quite bright, but not dim either. However, this only accounts for the light pollution - I was on a dark rooftop on a slight hill above other lights. So the light pollution was in place, but I had no lights in my eyes. If, by light pollution, you mean standing on a brightly lit street with a street light above you, then no, you won't see the beam. But if you mean, can you see it from a dark spot in the worst light-polluted sky imaginable? Yes, you can see it. Just for perspective, I used it about 45 minutes after sunset. The sky was still quite bright, with 20 minutes of nautical twilight left, and an hour of astronomical twilight. Limiting magnitude was perhaps 3.5. The beam was visible in these conditions. Dim, but unmistakably visible. These lasers are also supposed to work poorly in cold weather. I've used it in below-freezing temperatures. I was carefully to keep it in an inside pocket, or up my sleeve, when I wasn't using it. It worked fine. It tends to come on at less than full brightness, and then brighten up after a fraction of a second. Magic? So why DOES that beam of light simply stop at the target, instead of fading out in the distance, or seeming to go on "forever". Well, the answer's obvious if you do the math. If the laser is one foot away from my eyes, to the side, and I'm looking towards the "end" of the beam, then we can start to think in triangles, where the base is 1 foot long. If I look at a point 100 feet along the beam, then we have a tall skinny triangle with sides of 1 foot, 100 feet, The small angle for this triangle is 0.57 degrees. That's the angle between my sight line and the laser beam. But that means that the other angle is 89.42 degrees. The first 100 feet of beam covers 89.42 degrees of view to my eye. Let's look a thousand feet down the beam. We now cover 89.94 degrees of our field of view. Going ten times farther filled an additional 0.37 degrees of our field of view with a beam. At 10,000 feet, we get to 89.99 degrees - and we gained 0.05 degrees or three arcminutes. Beam-of-light technologies claims their beam from this product reaches 25,000 feet. If that's the case, then the additional 15,000 feet past what we just calculated will add 0.003 degrees to our view of the beam, or 10 arcSECONDS. The first 10,000 feet gives us a laser beam across almost 90 degrees of our view. And the next 15,000 feet of beam visually lengthens the visible beam by a size smaller than the disk of Saturn, Jupiter, or Venus. In other words, while the beam is fading out gradually, the part of it that we can actually see, the close part goes almost all the way to where we're pointing, while the long long section that fades out, adds almost no visible length to the beam. Even the section of the beam starting after one thousand feet away only lengthens the visible beam by the size of a crater on the moon that's too small to see with the naked eye. Where to buy? There are tons of people out there selling green lasers, and lots of horror stories. I chose Beam of Light Technologies because they've been in business for more than five years - I know this because I found a couple of negative reviews of them online from that long ago. But I found no recent bad reviews, and they were still in business. I'm perfectly satisfied with the product and with their service, although one could argue that when everything goes well, you haven't really tested their service. I apologize for writing in this space that Howie Glatter never answered my email. Apparently, spamassassin ate the email, and I found it later. By that time I'd already purchased my product. He has a good reputation, seems a bit pricy, but otherwise I can't comment on the quality of his products or services. Fine's Home Send Me Email

To understand which eyepiece is best for you, we first need to understand magnification. Magnification is measured by how many more times larger an image appears than the naked eye. For example, a magnification of 100x will make the object 100 times larger than what our eyes see. To calculate magnification, we can use this simple formula:

For example, if your telescope has an aperture of 100mm, you would not want to use an eyepiece that exceeds 200x magnification. In truth, the maximum useful magnification should only be used when atmospheric seeing conditions are near perfect. For this reason, you'll want some eyepieces that fall well below the maximum useful magnification, such as 1/2 or 1/4 that figure.