Today’s guest post has been brought to you by the fantastic Lance Fisher

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My laser beam across the lake!

Wow! My word! Holy Crap! These are a few of the exclamations people use when I first show them my new laser beam. That’s what I call it. To call my 95mW Nexus Green Laser from Wicked Lasers a laser pointer is really misleading. At night, you can see a green line projected for what I’d guess is a mile. During the day, you don’t want to look at the dot. It is simply too bright.

So how did this all come about? A few months ago, I was lucky enough to win a contest that David ran here on Techzi.net sponsored by Wicked Lasers. After a wait, they upgraded my prize to the $370 laser in the executive line. I told David that I’d happily write a review, and now I’m finally getting around to it.

The difficulty about writing the review is that I’ve had a hard time actually testing the laser. You can supposedly pop balloons and light matches on fire with it. I have no doubt this would work, but I can’t hold the laser on a balloon, because I can’t look at it. It hurts your eyes just looking at the spot it projects. I suppose what I should do is invest in a pair of laser shades, but hey they’re forty bucks.

The best use I have found for this is to point out constellations. I can’t imagine a better tool. However, I am not an astronomer. My wife asks me what is the purpose of having it, and all I can tell her is “it’s cool.” But you know, without people being interested in lasers, playing with them, and searching for new uses, I don’t think we’d have great things like DVDs, CDs, laser levels, surveying equipment, and all those other useful inventions.

If you do end up getting one of these, I’d caution you to lecture you friends before you let them try it. Tell them about the blinding effects and how you can’t point it at airplanes or people. And yes, that’s speaking from experience.