Laserglow.com - Aquarius-5 and Lyra-5 Gold - Photo review

[allthatwhichis]

I did fairly well on my tax return and paid off a third of my credit card debt; all the high intrest ones... so I took part of my recent bonus and bought two items that have little to no purpose, but I always wanted one of them and the other is "pimp" and was on sale. Now please, no thread crapping. If you got nothing positive to post (or don't like pointers), don't post... both of them are legal... as in <5mW. Alright I have seen em get to just over 6mW but that was after cheering em on for a while.

I am not a big pointer person myself but I wanted to buy something with no other purpose than to amuse myself with. It is nice to get a laser fix without powering up the projector.

The Blue Aquarius-5 is a pulsed 2-5mW 473nm DPSS. It came is a nice "flight case" and well... it is a blue pointer. I really want to get a yellow pointer, but Mo and Matt now have em... so I got the blue as it was $10 cheaper that the 2-5mW Rigel-5. the blue pointer is very heat sensitive. It starts at 1-2mW and TEM01 right out of the box and takes a good 4 or 5 minutes or playing with before it reaches optimum temp. The pictures below are after having it in my pocket for a while and was the first time I saw it get to 6mW.

The Lyra-5 gold is a 4-5mW CW 532nm DPSS with 18k gold plating... All I can say is my cat's name is Lyra... and it was on sale. Don't we all need a gold plated laser?








































Actually both are on sale until 03/22/2010...

Aquarius-5 blue laser pointer.
Reg. $449, now only $389! (Save $60)

Series NameAquarius Series
Dimensions (mm)155 x 34
Battery Type1 pcs. lithium 3V "CR-2" battery
Sustained Output Power2-25 mWWavelength473 nm
Output TypePulsed (700Hz)
Cooling MethodAir
Beam ColorBlue
Transverse ModeTEM00, TEM01, TEM02
Beam Diameter<1.0 mm
Beam Divergence<1.0 mrad
Operating Temperature20 - 35°C
Expected Lifetime5,000 hours
Warranty Period6 months

-Lyra-5 Gold Edition green laser pointer.
Reg. $89 now only $69! (Save $20)

Series NameLyra Gold Edition
Dimensions (mm)152 x 13
Battery Type2pcs. Alkaline 1.5V "AAA" batteries
or
2pcs. NiMH 1.2V "AAA" rechargeable
Sustained Output Power3-5 mW (model dependant)
Wavelength532nm
Output TypeCW (Continuous Wave)
Cooling MethodAir
Beam ColorGreen
Transverse ModeTEM00
Beam Diameter<1.5 mm
Beam Divergence<1.2 mrad
Operating Temperature15 - 35°C
Expected Lifetime5,000 hours
Warranty Period6 months

[danielbriggs]

Nicey nice!

How come the blue is pulsed?
No specific reason for the question, just seems a tad unusual for a pointer IMO...
But hey-ho

[Doc]

How come the blue is pulsed?
No specific reason for the question, just seems a tad unusual for a pointer IMO...
But hey-ho

I'm guessing it is to reduce duty cycle and hence temperature in the abscence of TECs?