Mobile Application Design - User contributions [en]

Green Laser Pointers From Green-LaserPointer.Com

2007-12-13T08:33:43Z

Secretwise7582:

After a telescope, this is the best astronomy educational tool I've seen. At night this AAA battery powered [http://www.Green-LaserPointer.com green laser pointer] can seemingly touch the stars millions of miles away. Compared to a red laser pointer, the green beam remains visible and penetrates the air much farther. Because of its particular spectrum you see the beam and not just the end dot. Also, it's about 50 times brighter than an ordinary red laser pointer -- using the same safe low power. On a clear night it can easily shine a dot a mile away. With its sharp laser beam you can pinpoint the exact star you want, which greatly accelerates mapping and learning the constellations. I've been amazed at how much faster I've learned the heavens with one of these in hand.

The problem with [http://www.Green-LaserPointer.com green laser] pointers has been their stiff price. Only recently have they dropped below $80, which is still a lot for an educational tool. Manufacturing green laser engines is more art than science so their actual power output varies by final pointer. The lasers are sorted after they are made. The select ones near to the legal "pointer" limit of 5 milliWatts are labeled as such and are priced around $100 these days. The others are labeled as "less than 5mW" or "guaranteed to be up to 5 mW" and are priced as cheap as $80, but their actual power is not stated. For a star pointer all you need is one of these cheap ones. I've been using an in expensive "up to 5mW" version that works wonderfully.

Incidentally, you can purchase higher powered green lasers from Green-LaserPointer that exceed the mandated 5 mW. Their 95 mW green laser (6 mile range) goes for $499.95 and their scary/astounding 200 mW for $800. These are incredibly bright at night, but overkill for an astronomy aid.

Full-powered 5mW
$79.95
Available from [http://www.Green-LaserPointer.com Green-LaserPointer.com]

High-powered Lasers Classic
95 mW
$499.95
Available from [http://www.Green-LaserPointer.com Green-LaserPointer.com]

Multiple diabolos

2007-09-11T16:16:29Z

Secretwise7582:

== Multiple diabolos ==

Perhaps the most active area of development for [http://www.diaboloer.com diabolo] involves tricks with more than one diabolo on a single string. When manipulating multiple diabolos "low", the diabolos orbit continuously on the string in a "shuffle". Shuffles are either synchronous (commonly referred to as "sync"), asynchronous ("async"), or only using the diaboloist's dominant hand, depending on whether the diaboloist's hands' movements occur simultaneously or not.
Juggling multiple diabolos "high" involves continuously catching and throwing a number of diabolos, with never more than one diabolo on the string at any one time. Diabolists have pushed the number of diabolos juggled at once up to 6 high (although there is some controversy as to whether this counts as the number of catches achieved is so small) and 4 low. Most diabolists, however, stick to using only two or three diabolos at once. The introduction of multiple diabolos on a single string allows for many new moves. Many are applications of one diabolo moves to multiple diabolos.

* Accelerations - The diabolos are accelerated while they wrapped and the diaboloist dominant hand is pulled up in order to gain speed. 2 other ways of accelerating diabolos are either doing Chinese acceleration or the diabolos are shuffled very fast.
* Hyperloop/Sprinkler - The diabolos orbit each other inside a closed loop of string.
* Columns/Mini-columns - Two diabolos are bounced up and down on the string.
* Siteswap - A notation borrowed from toss juggling in which the diabolos are thrown in different rhythms based on a numeric description.
* Fan - Two diabolos are spun between the arms in a way which mimics the blades of a fan.
* Sun - The diabolos are swung in a circle
* Suicide - Similar to the one diabolo suicides but some tricks are not possible
* Knots - Similar to one diabolo knots, but both diabolos are wrapped up
* Stalls - This is where one or both diabolos are still spinning but not in shuffle. This allows a diaboloist to do a trick with the other.