Anyone see what I see?

I was just playing with my <5mW $5 pointer. I was pointing it at my ceiling which was like 5-6 feet away from me. I noticed that there were these blue lines that were bending when I would move the pointer up and down and in circles. I swear I'm not a pot head and as far as I know I have 20/20 vision. I honestly think these lines were in my eyes or brain and were reacting to the light. Can anyone help me figure this one out? I know it's weird but it's freaking me out.

So... were these somewhat like trails? Because if so, then I can pretty much assure you that that is perfectly normal... it's nothing more than your eye readjusting after the sudden flash of coherent light. This seems to show up most if you are in a completely dark room and you don't move your eyes while pointing the laser... It's just your retina 'readjusting' I think...

You have nothing to worry about... and I'm sure this would be better when you add the effect of a slow-down d r u g like pot. Never tried it myself, but I suppose someone has at some point... and I'm envious... to a degree...  :-/ :-[

--DDL

***EDIT Fixed the I am a stupid spammer thingie ! LOL ***

It's not really an after image it's like certain parts of my cornea adjusting to the light even though I know this is impossible because red doesn't affect the rods in your eyes. Here is a poor example but it looks something like this:
img211.imageshack.us/img211/2627/myeyesua1.jpg
Except the blue parts reappear and disappear as I move the pointer up and down.

what kind of ceiling do you have? popcorn or popcorn with mica/sparkles in it?

Lots of thing will cause interference patterns, and fluoresce when hit with a laser. it could even be something as simple as a fingerprint on the lense that causes funny patterns and colors.

SenKat --

What triggers that "I am ass" Thingie ?? I think mine was "xxxx" or "x x x x"
DDL must have been sleepy

Mike

Putting in words like d r u g s , s e x, x x x, etc.....those are some of the buzwords I know of that the forum picks up on....just odd

An after image of a bright red object or light source would naturally be blue. You're looking at it with the rods/cones of your retinia (I forget which are color, which are low-light), but the red one's sort of get "tired", exhaust their neurotransmitter chemicals or whatnot, and the blue ones dominate, or the absence of the off line red cells makes that area of your retina and it's nerves think it's seeing some blue.

It could also be chromatic aberration. Like a prism that bends each frequency of light differently, so do lenses and your own eye. it's never perfect. Colors get spread out a bit different, if there's a blue or violet wavelength in there somewhere, your own lens in your eyes can make it land in a different spot on your retina, red LED's on electronics in an otherwise black room seem to have faint little purple halos around them to me.

Don't forget the Reds can have rings around the dot due to the acrylic lenses they often have in them. I've seen this with my Pulsar.

I remember seeing a flag which was the wrong color. Stare at it for a minute and close your eyes and you see the flag in the correct colors. I believe DDL has the correct analysis.

Mike

HAHAHAHA... haven't checked on this thread in a little while and all of a sudden "I am a stupid spammer" ;D

Thanx a ton SenKat for catching that;
DDL

AJ_Dual said:

An after image of a bright red object or light source would naturally be blue. You're looking at it with the rods/cones of your retinia (I forget which are color, which are low-light), but the red one's sort of get "tired", exhaust their neurotransmitter chemicals or whatnot, and the blue ones dominate, or the absence of the off line red cells makes that area of your retina and it's nerves think it's seeing some blue.

It could also be chromatic aberration. Like a prism that bends each frequency of light differently, so do lenses and your own eye. it's never perfect. Colors get spread out a bit different, if there's a blue or violet wavelength in there somewhere, your own lens in your eyes can make it land in a different spot on your retina, red LED's on electronics in an otherwise black room seem to have faint little purple halos around them to me.

Click to expand...

I think this answers what I am seeing perfectly. At least I know I'm not the only one. Thanks guys. Now if only it wasn't taking 5-12 days for my x65 to come in :-/

One related question of my own-- I have noticed even after using my laser for just 2 seconds, (~50mW red) my little LED keychain pointer goes from red to orange, and is about 4x dimmer. This effect lasts for at least 5 hours, and covers my entire field of vision. I am not dreaming, it happens to my brother AND my mom as well, for about the same amount of time.

Its an "Acolyte Smartlyte" if it matters, I took it out of a hunting backpack; I was bored and dont mind running it dry-- lifetime replacement warranty!

Also, its alright to use a 50mW without lasershades, right? Cause 250mW minus 80% is 50mW anyway...

And I figure one millimeter of sunlight has about 1.2 watts of power behind it. Going of that... does that mean the sun is as dangerous as I think it is? I suppose your eyes are dilated indoors when you have a laser though. People don't go to the doc when they accidentally glance at the sun though... :-/

seeing one particular color affects other colors for a while. Ever worn 3d glasses ( the old blue and red kind, not the new polarized ones ) around. One eye sees everyhting cool, the others all the colors are warm for a while. A quick flip of the glases and it makes both balance out instantly. It's something the eye does to compensate for color saturation.

also while the sun is very bright, the danger is focusing the dot down. Our eyes have a natural aversion reflex that makes it go out of focus and blink when you look at it, so normally you can't look at it long enough to cause damage. When the sunlight is focused, say through binoculars or some other lense, then damage can occur instantly. Sunlight is also non coherent and scattered, so a majority of the light going into your eye is scattered.