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POWERFUL ASTRONOMY RED LASER POINTER
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All your base are belong to us.

Powerful Astronomy Red Laser Pointer, retail $3.70
Manufactured by: (Unknown)
Last updated 11-26-12

(In reference to the padded envelope I received from an Ebay seller on the afternoon of 11-19-12):
{sung like the Foreigner song "Feels Like the First Time"}

The Powerful Astronomy Red Laser Pointer is...what else...a red-emitting directly-injected diode laser. That is, it produces red laser radiation directly, without the need for messy, fragile nonlinear crystals like those green laser pointers and the amberish-yellow and blue ones as well. It uses two AAA cells -- the same power source used in most other "pen-style" laser pointers and laser modules.

It is advertised to output 5mW of laser radiation at 656.85nm (measured spectrographically); its output was measured at 4mW.

It comes in a handsome aluminum body with a black finish and chrome-colored bezel, tailcap, and pocket clip.

SIZE

To get the laser to turn on, first be certain that there are a pair of AAA cells installed. If there isn't, then install them (see directly below), and THEN you can go irradiate something.

Press & hold down the button on the barrel for as long as you want or need the laser spot, and release pressure on the button to turn the laser back off.

To change the batteries in this laser pointer, unscrew the tailcap of this laser, throw it into the kitchen dustbin (garbage can) which is overflowing and crawling with cockroaches, flies, and mice, tie off the bin liner (plastic garbage bag), carry it to outdoor wheelie bin (wheeled garbage can), throw it in, slam the lid down, and wait patiently for garbage day so that the dustman (garbage man) empties the wheelie bin into his dust lorry (garbage truck)...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

Tip the two used AAA cells out of the barrel and into your hand, and dispose of, recycle, or recharge them as you see fit.

Insert two new AAA cells into the barrel, flat-end (-) negative first. This is the opposite of how batteries are installed in most flashlights, so please pay attention to polarity here.

Screw the tailcap back on, and be done with it.

Unable to measure current use due to how this laser was constructed.

This is a self-contained laser , and not a flashlight meant to be carried around, thrashed, trashed, and abused - so I won't try to drown it in the toliet tank, bash it against a steel rod or against a concrete porch, let my mother's big dog's ghost or our kitty cats piddle (uranate) on it, run over it with a 450lb Celebrity motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, use a small or medium ball peen hammer in order to bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata, drop it down the top of Mt. Erupto (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again

- candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout (located at Piñata Central {aka. "Party Central"}), with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; the cannoñata (also located at Piñata Central) is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island, and Mt. Erupto is an active volcano on Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analyses, or perform other indecencies on it that a flashlight might have to have performed on it. So this section of the web page will be ***SIGNIFICANTLY*** more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

This is a directly-injected laser though, who's active components are the laser diode and the collimating lens. So it should withstand accidents better than a DPSS (diode pumped solid state) laser - the type of laser assembly found in yellow (593.5nm), green (532nm) and blue (473nm) laser pointers. These lasers have several additional components (crystals, filters, etc.) in the optical train, and you can knock them out of alignment by doing little more than looking at them the wrong way. And if any of these components are knocked out of whack, you'll no longer get your yellow, green, or blue laser beam.

Though you still do not want to intentionally throw, drop, or otherwise abuse your red-emitting laser because it's a precision optical instrument.

Power output analysis

Power output tops out at 4mW on a LaserBee 2.5W USB Laser Power Meter w/Thermopile.

Beam photograph of this laser on the test target at 12".
Beam image bloomed significantly; it is also not white & pink as depicted by this photo.

Beam photograph on a wall at ~10'.
Just like above, the beam image bloomed significantly; it is also not white & pink as depicted by this photo.

Spectrographic analysis of the laser diode in this product.
Wavelength appears to be ~650nm, which is within specification for the type of laser diode used in this laser.

Same as above; but spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 650nm and 655nm.
This shows that the wavelength is in fact 653.008nm.

USB2000 Spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.

ProMetric analysis

Beam cross-sectional analysis with beam widened (x-axis).

ProMetric analysis

Beam cross-sectional analysis with beam widened (y-axis).

These charts show the somewhat ovoid beam profile;
this is consistent with directly-injected diode lasers.

Images made using the ProMetric System by Radiant Imaging.

TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased on Ebay on 11-05-12 (or "05 Nov. 2012" or even "Nov. 05, Twenty Stick-Very-Twirly-Stick if you prefer), and was received 0n 11-19-12.

I have decided to rate this wonderful little laser four stars!!!

If something happens down the road, I can always derate it if necessary.

UPDATE: 00-00-00

PROS:
Uses inexpensive and readily available batteries
The price is right!

NEUTRAL:

CONS:
No CDRH-mandated laser warning label on laser itself or on packaging
Some artifacts (evil little things like rings & splotches outside the main beam) visible at close range
Feels a bit on the "chintzy" side

Unknown

Red-emitting laser pointer

Directly-injected red-emitting laser diode

Very narrow spot

Momentary on/off button on barrel

Metal; very probably aluminum

Metal; laser & lens recessed into its end

2x AAA cells

Light splatter-resistant at maximum

DER TEUFEL TRÄGT EINE SCHEIßE GEFÜLLTEN WINDEL, NEIN!

None

39.70g (1.40 oz)

Not stated; but presumably China

Unknown/not stated

Powerful Astronomy Red Laser Pointer *

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