A few weeks ago, I got an email from Noah of Bigha asking if I wanted to try one of the Jasper green lasers that he’s selling. After verifying this wasn’t some strange spam, I said yes. Several days later the laser arrived in a tube and I started to play with it a bit.
Thanks go to James for helping me take several pictures of the laser beam and also to Jason for taking a picture at the gun range.
The little oval black button is the trigger that turns the laser on. Unlike the red lasers, you can keep the green laser on indefinitely.
Here is the laser with the Universal Size Reference Unit, a CD case. The laser comes with a lanyard so you can hang it around your neck and not lose it.
The green laser is incredibly bright. You are sitting there thinking, “Yeah, yeah, bright smight, I’ve seen those little lasers before. How bright can it be?” Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, it’s so bright you can see the beam itself at night as it illuminates the air in the path of the beam.
This is a photo of the beam pointing up at night being used to point out stars.
For the rest of the review, click More.
This is the laser pointing out the stars with the roof in the background for perspective. Pretty nifty eh?
The strength of the beam is high enough to carry the light quite a distance. Pointing out a nearby telephone pole. This is how it really looks, not a camera trick.
Much further away is a palm tree that I could easily hit. The laser could hit the tops of palm tress that were a half mile away. Yes, I measured how far the palm tree was away. Is the strength of the laser sinking in yet?
We took the laser into the backyard and strapped it to my telescope as a sighting scope. James’s photo looks damn cool doesn’t it?
Gaffer’s tape is what was used to attach the laser, so it wasn’t precisely aligned. If I was serious, I would have used a real sighting scope mount and centered in the laser for accuracy. Too bad the moon wasn’t high enough in the sky to point at with the laser.
My boss is a laser expert back from the days when they were inventing laserdisc inscribing. I asked him what would be good for diffusing the laser light. He said the optimal object was a bouncy superball. This is an image of hitting my daughter’s transparent superball with the laser.
I wasn’t content to simply point the laser up in the air every night, so I thought up another use. Rifle targeting! I strapped the Jasper to the end of my rifle. The laser doesn’t have a constant on mode, so I used a girls pink rubber hair band as an impromptu perma-trigger.
Here’s an un-closeup of the setup. Note that I used the all purpose gaffer’s tape again.
At the gun range, the laser was a little off. Again, I needed to mount it seriously instead of using tape. After every shot I had to try to manually readjust it. Although, for a shotgun, it would allow fairly accurate hip shooting.
Here’s what it looks like in person. You can see the beam and the path of the bullet easily. Jason got a nice shot here.
There’s probably a ton of other things you can do with the Jasper like strapping it to a cantenna while wardriving or scaring neighbors at night out for a walk. I’m glad I had a chance to play around with the Jasper for a while. My daughter love it and had a great time playing with it. They couldn’t get enough of bouncing the light off of mirrors and using it outside during nighttime strolls.
Pretty much everyone that saw the Jasper in action thought it was pretty damn cool. It’s a bit expensive, over $100, but the geek coolness factor is quite high. It is a product that lives up to it’s hype.
WOW!
Can I play with it?
It is just a light laser isn’t it?
Not a weapon, right?
That thing’s a light sabre.
Yeah, but couldn’t you put someone’s eye out with that? It’s not exactly safe, is it??
The beam angles look backwards… the perspective makes it look like the beam is being fired towards you. Are you sure you weren’t being attacked by aliens?
You are now ready to become a Jedi Master.
Thanks for posting this.
I read about the laser from gizmodo and thought it sounded “cool” and then ordered it.
It should arrive here in Tel Aviv, Israel in a few days.
Are you still enjoying playing with it?
Cost me a total of 140$ with the shipping… Hope it’s going to be fun..
The Jasper Always is slightly larger with a make/make, on/off switch. It’s a fabulous green laser, far better than any of the other greens lasers I’ve burned through.
BUT … the switch is classic dumbass engineering. It is so sensitivie, just looking at the switch can latch the circuit on. If you put it in your pocket, it will turn on. When you need it, your battery will be dead.
If you’re buying a Jasper, do not — DO NOT get the Always version. It’s bad engineering.
david
Too expensive, it is, and not fit for a Jedi beginner. Cut though warm butter, it wouldn’t. The force is not strong with this one. Recommend it I would not.
Yoda
“My daughter love it and had a great time playing with it”
Laser pointers are not toys!
Under no cercumstances should you allow a child to wave one of these around.
I use to be in astronomy and still love looking a gods creation. This might seem a great aid for pointing out the stars instead of using your fingers even though it might be still hard for the other person see where you are pointing your finger.
The thing of it is these laser star pointer use a highly coherent beam and can still blind you for life. And guy and gals these laser will cause you to get arrested. Since there have be news of pilots and copilots that fly those big jumbo jets with you know over 100 people are reporting being hit by these green laser star pointers usually when they are in a decent to land. So if you are in a heavy air trafic zone don’t use these.
If you do you can go to prison for 27 years and pay a fine up to $500,000. Recently a man has been convicted of this very thing. Eventhough he was inocently pointing out the various to his child. He is being charged under the patriout act number 2. http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/laser_man_charged_under_patriot_act.htm
I suspect these device will be baned and all the companys and distributors will get a court order to stop selling these and receive a stiff penalty.
Just saving anybody the grief of being charged by homeland security of endangering low flying aircraft.
Doug
One guy was charge by homeland security under the patriot act number 2.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/laser_man_charged_under_patriot_act.htm
As other people have said these are dangerous and not a toy. I suspect these will be banned by the federal government.
So don’t use these for your own peace of mind.
Doug
I’ve read the story about the poor, dumb, bastard shining it at planes and a chopper that was there investigating where the laser came from-what a maroon-however, I do not beleive these pilots were “temporarily blinded”-just another knee jerk reaction and after-the-fact overkill by the government punks trying to justify their jobs-they need jobs at a convenience store where they can amaze drunken late-night customers with their made-up stories
I am intereted in purchasing a jasper laser but I’m not sure which one to get. Now or always. I read in a review that the always switch is dodgey. Is this true?