Iluvatar
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- Joined
- Mar 23, 2011
- Messages
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The high school I attend recently put on an astronomy night in which a few teachers brought telescopes and students could look at stars, planets, etc. A friend of mine had brought a <5 mw green laser in order to point at stars and to play around with. He ended up letting some friends borrow it, and since it was a slightly foggy night the laser soon became a Buzz Lightyear wrist laser to be shined out across the horizon and everywhere in between. Because the laser had minimal power, none of us thought this was any danger. About 15 minutes later a cop showed up at the school. We assumed he was just trying to figure out what a bunch of kids were doing out on the track in the middle of the night. The policeman got out and and asked us what we were doing. When we told him, he asked if our telescope had a laser on it. A teacher said that no, it didn't, but a couple of the kids were shining one around. The cop then told us that he had been driving down a road that was at least a mile and a half from where we were. He said the laser had hit him in the eye and he couldn't see a thing. I understand that the beam would have been very large at that distance, and there's no way someone could hold it still enough to hit him for more than a fraction of a second, but it turns out that shining a laser at a police officer's car is a federal offence. No one actually got in trouble, but i hate to think what a 500mw+ would have done. I'm just trying to say don't be stupid, you never know where a car could be at that far away.
