using your lasers in public

Anybody finding it difficult to use your lasers in public?

I just got back from a week long trip to Lake Tahoe. I had been waiting all year for this trip to use my lasers in the night sky especially my rpl 450.
However almost every occasion I did, it attracted, the wrong attention.

First night I was shining my 445nm across the water on some small boats anchored of the shore, with in a few minutes I had a patrol boat pull up and shine his light along the beach.

Second time I tried using my laser I got swamped by a bunch of teenagers asking what it was and where did i get it.

Third time I was on the side of the road shining my rpl on the side of a granite mountain side. I was asked to move along by the highway patrol. He said it may be a distraction to other drivers. Even though at that time of night a cars are scarce, passing by only every few minutes.

Now I'm not some little prick that just goes around shining my lasers all over the place. The boats I was shining the laser at were small pleasure boats, not the kind of boats people would be living or sleeping on.

The mountain side I was hitting with my RPL, was way off in the distance out of site. I was also making sure to keep it off any time I heard a approaching car. In fact the officer never even saw my laser until he asked what I was doing.

Just kinda sucks, seems like when I try and actually have fun with my lasers I run into trouble

I'm rather paranoid about turning my lasers on where they could possibly be seen by anybody else; it's somewhat annoying but as you said - they tend to attract the wrong kind of attention. I've found that it's safer just to ensure that there is nobody around.

Using lasers in public: Its best to not do it at all. I EXPECT that people will not understand my lasers, and so I keep my lasers at home to keep attention off myself.

Again, treat those beams like a stream of bullets. I'm sure you weren't hurting anything AT ALL. I know you to be a responsible member here, so i expect that you are a responsible user of lasers. BUT, since there were obviously still people in the area, It is still best to keep the beam so that others don't see it.

You didn't happen to get any beam shots that night did you?

Meatball said:

Using lasers in public: Its best to not do it at all. I EXPECT that people will not understand my lasers, and so I keep my lasers at home to keep attention off myself.

Again, treat those beams like a stream of bullets. I'm sure you weren't hurting anything AT ALL. I know you to be a responsible member here, so i expect that you are a responsible user of lasers. BUT, since there were obviously still people in the area, It is still best to keep the beam so that others don't see it.

You didn't happen to get any beam shots that night did you?

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It's just so hard to find areas completely void of people Like the teenagers I didn't even really know they were there. They were the ones on the beach behind a rock probably smoking or drinking.

The night the highway patrol asked me to move along. That night I had passed at least 4 or 5 designated rest stops or viewing points along the road.
Every one of the stops had someone there. That is why I just ended up along the road at a random point. I probably would have not been hassled by the cop if I was not parked on the side of the road. Since he never saw my laser in the first place. Just trying to hard to avoid all the oohs and awes at the rest stops.

It just kinda sucks because I have pretty much stopped using my lasers at home other then inside. Occasionally I will just aim them straight up in the sky not much to point them at with out causing trouble or being rude. I just kept telling myself I will get to use them all I want in tahoe. Next time I will just ditch my family and take a long walk at 1am

I will admit shining my rpl at that giant, granite mountain side was spectacular. Must have been close to a half a mile away and I could see it actually hitting the mountain side.

I'm sure you were acting safely. Personally, I would have felt happy that the highway patrol guy, didn't know about the laser.

I've used my 445nm at a fireworks show(after the fireworks) and it got lots of "wtf is that blue light", "oohs and aaahs" and other random comments. Nothing bad though and I didn't have anyone actually approach me and bug me about it.

Most people I've met are impressed by my lasers and at worst they'll come up to me asking how much they are and where to buy them.

http://laserpointerforums.com/showthread.php?t=52205

'Nuff said.

Third time I was on the side of the road shining my rpl on the side of a granite mountain side. I was asked to move along by the highway patrol. He said it may be a distraction to other drivers. Even though at that time of night a cars are scarce, passing by only every few minutes.

Click to expand...

At least he didn't confiscate it.

It's like the flashlight conundrum:

In the dark, you can either stumble around, probably getting hurt, not finding what you're looking for, etc., or you can use a flashlight and have people call the police on you for using a flashlight.

People automatically assume that if you are using a flashlight at night, you are doing something bad. They never stop to think that perhaps it's because you want to see.

i bring my lasers to raves. it's always a crowd pleaser. the cops there were pretty cool about it. i let one of them use it. in retrospect it i realize it could have been trickery but in the end the cop turned out to be cool.

michael