Quote:
Originally Posted by Steffen
You say the device is to be be mounted on a tripod next to the telescope. How close to the scope does it have to be? Would it be practical to set up one and share it between scopes within a 10m radius?
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That's exactly what we did when we aligned an EQ6 and an LX200 at the same time. Up to 40m the beam is still visible. Of course it depends on how dark the sky is. 10mW is stong enough for aligning when there is a bit of moon or late dusk. 5mw would have been too weak for this, making it visible only when there is no moon. 30mW would have been too powerful for anyone to be comfortable with.
I will have it with me this weekend at a star party this weekend where I will use it for everyone to align their scopes. The nice thing is one you set it up (say dusk) on the two reference stars, it can stay there indefinitely and if anyone wants to align later in the evening, you just turn on the SCP laser. An on-off-on switch turns on and off either the two reference lasers or the SCP laser.