JaiNobeZ
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- Joined
- Jan 21, 2010
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Raise your hand if you recognise the following view:
It's the view from the top of the hill in Greenwich park. It looks slightly different at night:
(Not my picture)
See that almighty green line? That's a five Watt laserscope, coming from the Royal Observatory.
Well, guess what? My sister plays guitar with someone who works in the observatory and he knows the technician who operates the laser and... anyway, I asked whether I could take a closer look at it and it turns out it is switched on manually every day at 4:00 PM (presumably to avoid setting some unsuspecting birds on fire). So the technician offered me the opportunity to switch it on!
After me & Chez got in free, he took us into a little crevice underneath the main telescope and handed me a set of controls:
(At this point picture-taking became a little awkward because the light was a bit strange and there wasn't a huge amount of room - if you can't tell, that's me from behind holding the control panel. If you look closely, you can see the "5.00" signifying the output in Watts
)
I was told which button to hit to start the diode warming up and then he spoke to me about the laser for a bit. After a while I hit another button to switch it on. He also pointed out buttons which allowed me to put a shutter up and down, which I had fun with.
Here is where the laser beam exits:
I was expecting something far more fancy and high-tech but why complicate things when a hole-in-the-wall works fine?
The camera couldn't pick it up (although we did try) but there was a perfectly visible beam in the room lit by broad daylight. Very impressive! There's a sign just below the hole which says "Prime Meridian Of The World" because this laser was originally placed to mark the Meridian line. I'll leave someone else to explain exactly what that means because I sort-of understand but don't want to explain badly and lead to others getting it wrong. :thinking: I quit Geography at 14.
The view from the outside:
This photo demonstrates the fact that you are completely unable to estimate the power of a laserbeam based on a photograph. I'll be doing it again in winter, when it'll hopefully be darker so I'll be able to watch an ungodly bright column of green rip through a night sky.
To top it all off, they gave me a certificate to confirm that I'd done it
Here's the best part... I'm still in contact with the technician. If anyone is planning a visit to London, send me a PM and if I'm at home I'll see if we can arrange something.
And now, unrelatedly, me & Chez looking nerdy outside the laser room:
(Yes, those are my laser safety goggles. I brought them along just for a laugh.)
(Chez is probably going to be angry because I stuck a picture of her up without asking, but oh well. See how it goes
)
Happy lasering!
It's the view from the top of the hill in Greenwich park. It looks slightly different at night:
(Not my picture)
See that almighty green line? That's a five Watt laserscope, coming from the Royal Observatory.
Well, guess what? My sister plays guitar with someone who works in the observatory and he knows the technician who operates the laser and... anyway, I asked whether I could take a closer look at it and it turns out it is switched on manually every day at 4:00 PM (presumably to avoid setting some unsuspecting birds on fire). So the technician offered me the opportunity to switch it on!
After me & Chez got in free, he took us into a little crevice underneath the main telescope and handed me a set of controls:
(At this point picture-taking became a little awkward because the light was a bit strange and there wasn't a huge amount of room - if you can't tell, that's me from behind holding the control panel. If you look closely, you can see the "5.00" signifying the output in Watts
)I was told which button to hit to start the diode warming up and then he spoke to me about the laser for a bit. After a while I hit another button to switch it on. He also pointed out buttons which allowed me to put a shutter up and down, which I had fun with.
Here is where the laser beam exits:
I was expecting something far more fancy and high-tech but why complicate things when a hole-in-the-wall works fine?
The camera couldn't pick it up (although we did try) but there was a perfectly visible beam in the room lit by broad daylight. Very impressive! There's a sign just below the hole which says "Prime Meridian Of The World" because this laser was originally placed to mark the Meridian line. I'll leave someone else to explain exactly what that means because I sort-of understand but don't want to explain badly and lead to others getting it wrong. :thinking: I quit Geography at 14.
The view from the outside:
This photo demonstrates the fact that you are completely unable to estimate the power of a laserbeam based on a photograph. I'll be doing it again in winter, when it'll hopefully be darker so I'll be able to watch an ungodly bright column of green rip through a night sky.
To top it all off, they gave me a certificate to confirm that I'd done it
Here's the best part... I'm still in contact with the technician. If anyone is planning a visit to London, send me a PM and if I'm at home I'll see if we can arrange something.
And now, unrelatedly, me & Chez looking nerdy outside the laser room:
(Yes, those are my laser safety goggles. I brought them along just for a laugh.)
(Chez is probably going to be angry because I stuck a picture of her up without asking, but oh well. See how it goes
)Happy lasering!
