That's good news, Wayne! Thanks for the post. The comments on batteries you and Acres made makes me want to try my various lasers with identical batteries now. I'm sure each was using a different brand and age. In fact the 20mw Lucky Duck was running on the off-brand batteries that came with it. I did compare mine "blind" last night, and at different times each would seem brighter than the other, but I could never be sure it wasn't just a localized difference in suspended particulates in the air. Neither was consistently brighter. Would you be up for a comparative test of your lasers one of these nights? I can fit six lasers on the test stand at one time. -----Original Message----- From: wsumner@dsdmail.net To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 8:33 AM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Lucky Duck laser Hi Chuck, It just so happens that I received my 20 mW laser yesterday. I now own 4 green lasers, and the 20 mW is definitely the brightest of the 4. At first, when I went outside and compared them alone, I, too, thought that the 20 mW was about the same as the optimized 5 mW laser I bought two years ago with Doug Say from the OAS (we each bought one, but got a better price by buying two together). However, when I brought my wife outside and had her turn them on two at a time with me about 15 feet away, the 20 mW was significantly easier to see. I had her use them one at a time in random order to outline the Big Dipper, and was able to pick out the 20 mW every time. I conducted these tests using Energizer e^2 Lithium batteries out of the same freshly opened package, and made sure the laser and batteries were all at the same room temperature when I started. Of the 4 lasers, the cheap one I bought from Lucky Duck two months ago is definitely the dimmest. :-( Based on my results, the email Chuck received from Noah Acres seems plausible. I'm happy with my $79 20 mW laser (plus $8 shipping). Wayne A. Sumner Math/Physics/Astronomy/Engineering Boy's Tennis Coach Northridge High School Davis School District (801) 402-8610 ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.