LASER!!!!

So the lasers finally arrived. Mine has a peak output of 136.7 mW and an average output of 133.7 mW. It's really bright... Just looking at the dot it makes when I shine it against the walls of my cube hurts my eyes. I should really probably get some goggles... I don't see any problem shining it into the heavens on a dark night (as long as I don't accidently hit any aircraft) but using it in close quarters may be a bad idea. I was a little incredulous about the claim that it could etch dark leather, but sure enough all you have to do is point it for a second and you'll start seeing smoke. Based on that I expected it to feel warmer against my skin. You can feel it, but it takes a few seconds.

Nova Lasers also genereously tossed in a "Matrix Diffraction Grating" as well. It's a lens endcap for the laser that splits the laser into multiple pin-points of light, almost like a small (very uniform) field of stars. That's one I'm very eager to try on a cloud one of these nights. Of course that's what I'm really looking forward to is night time. Particularly someplace without a lot of light pollution. I'm going up to my parents tonight and they live far enough outside of the city that it's pretty good for that sort of thing, you better believe I'll be taking the laser.

Anyway I'm pretty excited. I'll let you know how tonight's tests go.

Ready for Daylight Saving Time to be over