Ever accidently shined a laser in your eye?

[jwc]

I haven't accidentally caught myself in the eye yet, but, ironically enough, my professor in one of my math classes did. Luckily, it was only a cheap green pointer and only for a split second.

And my parents were worried about me burning my eyeballs out.

 

[JLSE]

I haven't accidentally caught myself in the eye yet, but, ironically enough, my professor in one of my math classes did.  Luckily, it was only a cheap green pointer and only for a split second.

And my parents were worried about me burning my eyeballs out.

LOL, back in the day, kids wanted BB guns and the saying was 'youll shoot your eye out!' The same kids are now grown up, and have their own kids, but the saying has changed somewhat to 'youll burn your eyes out'

Odd, but equally funny

 

[randomlugia]

And my parents were worried about me burning my eyeballs out.

Same here.

I had a 5mW red that was almost as bright as my 5mW green, and it just occured to me that that thing must have been putting out much more than 5mW. I did get hit with the green outside once, and my eye started watering for a few minutes, but no spot. Also, I'm pretty sure that was more like 10-15mW, so I was lucky.

 

[Spoz]

I would advise against using a dollar store pointer for something like that. Not that I would even recomend it PERIOD..

I purchased a spoiro kit some time back for $50. It was to check out the circuit used etc, and came with a cheapo $-store type red. The label indicated that the output was <5mW, so I loaded some fresh button cells into it, and checked the output  to see if it was even near 5mW.. The laser came in at 10mW on two different meters

So unless you have a means of testing the actual output, I would strongly advise against any such behaviour. The majority of pointers and keychain lasers are made overseas. That being said, why would you want to risk this?

Even if you dont suffer immediate and noticable effects, it doesnt mean you wont be wearing coke bottle glasses in the distant future, and I doubt you would notice any degradation in your night vision. Doing something like this would be just plain stupid anyway

Yes, that is the worry. I wouldn't recommend anyone try it without verifying the output of the laser. I have used a 5mW red and 5mW green and got good results but again, it's really up to you to research it and make sure there is minimal risk. I am not a specialist so don't trust me.

That being said, it is a very interesting effect and I do believe there is minimal risk with a 5mW red.


As for why you would want to... well, if you ever see the effect you will know why. It really is quite beautiful.

 

[Tw15t3r]

Lol @ Spoz. Ok, maybe after attenuating the beam to like 0.5mW or something.

But anyway, I did shine a laser into my eye during research on some physics effect (no, it's got nothing to do with the eye. It was about polarisation). I was using a lab red doing <1mW through two cross polaroids and was trying to measure change in polarisation by finding minimum transmission. So I was looking into the laser through the polaroids while turning them to find the minimum transmission. Wasn't too bad. Could stare at the beam for 30secs or more. It's so weak through the polarisers that it's more comfortable than staring at a torch.

Oh, and lastly. An interesting fact. Our diode lasers are polarised!

 

[nikokapo]

"Ever acidentally shone a laser in your eye?"

HAD TO.

 

[Ears and Eggs]

Just last night actually I got one in the eye. I was with one of my friends and we were cooking a chicken in the oven. For some reason things go a little out of hand and it made a lot of smoke. After we dealt with the chicken we decided to use my lasers in the smokey area. The beams were great in the thick chickeny smoke. This is when I caught a reflection of my 200mW green in the eye.  My eye was kinda wierd for the rest if the night, but when I woke up I was relieved to find that it was back to normal.

 

[lasersbee]

Just last actually I got one in the eye. I was with one of my friends and we were cooking a chicken in the oven. For some reason things go a little. Out of hand and it made a lot of smoke. Once we were sure there was no fire risk, we decided to use my lasers in the smokey area. This is when I caught a relection of my 200mW green in the eye.  My eye was kinda wierd for the rest if the night, but when I woke up I was relieved to find that it was back to normal.

Hey Sawt...
so you almost went blind... because of a chicken..... :-? ;D


Jerry

 

[mikeeey]

wow lol, maybe it was a bad idea i made this thread, too many people are getting hurt after reading it  ;D

 

[lasersbee]

wow lol, maybe it was a bad idea i made this thread, too many people are getting hurt after reading it  ;D

Nahh... it is the same number of people that had already been hurt....

It is just that now... we are all aware of it... ;D ;D

Jerry

 

[HumanSymphony]

Just last actually I got one in the eye. I was with one of my friends and we were cooking a chicken in the oven. For some reason things go a little. Out of hand and it made a lot of smoke. Once we were sure there was no fire risk, we decided to use my lasers in the smokey area. This is when I caught a relection of my 200mW green in the eye.  My eye was kinda wierd for the rest if the night, but [highlight]when I woke up I was relieved to find that it was back to normal[/highlight].

luckyyy :'( lol. mine seems to be healing though. instead of being a gray spot it's just kinda blurry now. I don't even notice it unless I think about it.

 

[laser83]

The only thing I will mention is that I only recently started with lasers and I'm 25 years old. Over the years I've handed many far more dangerous objects such as firearms and acids.

I can sympathize with younger people. When I was in my teens I did plenty of stupid things (activated a unhooked CD-ROM but touched a live wire). I'd probably have my own story of doing something stupid with lasers. Fortunately the technology was not there and I had no money. The >1 mW pointer I had was to make the dog run around chasing it and not much else.

At 12 I cut open a glue stick because I had the brilliant idea that I could have a cup of glowing water. Of course the sticks are under pressure and the entire material shot into face when I cut it. I couldn't get a hold of my parents and I thought I had made myself blind. Burned my eyes for an hour had to be washed out for an hour but I was fine.
It's a long a list...

Eventually I wizened up. Giant neodymium magnets. Wear protective gloves. I think when you mess up long enough you eventually learn.

Of course some people never do...

 

[Jimmymcjimthejim]

My situation is a little bit different.
I don't know when, or how, but I have a blind spot in the center-right part of my vision in my right eye. I'm guessing it was from my DIY Sonar laser, but I don't remember ever getting hit by it :-?
Anyways the blind spot is still there, but never really bothers me. Well, the only part that bothers me is how whenever I try to look at it, it moves to the right a little, and keeps on moving.. Also what's really strange is that it appears randomly, for a few minutes at a time, and usually outdoors.

 

[Kenom]

I actually yesterday just got back from the eye doctor after over a YEAR of my laser accident. I shone a 100mw Green into my eye of the side and I've NEVER recovered the vision in that section, while the 50mw burn on the opposite side of my eye, is completely healed. (although it took MONTHS to do so!) My doctor showed me an image of my eye and asked me to look at this chart.

heres kind of what my eye looks like

 

[rocketparrotlet]

My situation is a little bit different.
I don't know when, or how, but I have a blind spot in the center-right part of my vision in my right eye. I'm guessing it was from my DIY Sonar laser, but I don't remember ever getting hit by it :-?
Anyways the blind spot is still there, but never really bothers me. Well, the only part that bothers me is how whenever I try to look at it, it moves to the right a little, and keeps on moving.. Also what's really strange is that it appears randomly, for a few minutes at a time, and usually outdoors.

What you're describing is probably a "floater", which is a dead cell floating around in the juices of your eyeball. I have them too, although I have a lot of really little ones and they don't come very often.

As to getting hit in the eye, yeah, I've been hit with my "5mW" (actually 15mW) green from a reflection off a mirror. I also took a couple of mirror/specular reflections from my blu-ray, but I was wearing goggles, so it was only a couple of mW and a really brief flash.

-Mark

 

[HumanSymphony]

Mine has mostly healed luckily ;D I can't even see it anymore unless I actually try to focus on it. It's still a little blurry but I can see through it fairly well It's definitely been an eye opener! :-/