Edwin Anderson, the Support Systems Analyst for the NAU Physics department, currently gives guided talks of the night sky using a 5 mW laser.  A 5 mW laser is not power enough to effectively direct the attention of large groups of people.  A 20 mW laser would be powerful enough to direct large groups of people, but is too dangerous to be used as a handheld pointing device.  Mr. Anderson has requested that a device be designed that could safely handle a 20 mW laser to be used during his guided talks.

The design must be capable of moving the laser across the sky at a minimum speed of 24° per second while maintaining a resolution of .5°.  The design must not be longer than 48” in order to fit into the back of Mr. Anderson’s vehicle.  In addition, the design must weigh less than 100 lbs.