Hello LPF, I just joined your community and I'm here to introduce myself.
I'm 37 years old (as you might notice from my username ) and I live in Italy. English is not my language, I'll try to write correctly but please forgive my mistakes!
I've always been really fascinated by the natural world and sciences, especially physics and chemistry; I got my first laser in 1993, it was a weak (but not easy to obtain) red diode. I used it for my high school's final physics exam... I did my demonstration but the examiner had no idea what I was talking about, since she had never seen a laser before!
Currently I have a few more pointers, green and red; the most powerful is a green pointer I bought from a street seller in Rome... I have no idea of its true power. Of course I've never looked into the beam or reflections, but even just looking at the dot puts a strain in the eyes after a couple of seconds. I know there's no way of knowing its power unless using a LPM.
What is weird with this pointer is that while all others I see for sale have a sticker saying <5mw, this has a sticker that says <100mW. I was surprised to find a sticker like that on a laser being sold in the streets.
Anyway... I have other more powerful lasers coming soon (not from WL thanks to you guys). I'm getting the goggles first, just in case the temptation gets too strong!
I have no experience with high-power lasers, but I do know about items that need respect - one of my other hobbies is studying nuclear physics and radioactivity, and I have a decent collection of radioactive samples, some pretty strong; and those too need respect and strict safety precautions. And I value my eyesight a lot!
Well, that's mostly it about me for now. I'm sure I'll like it here (I've actually been a lurker for some time before joining)!
Cristian
I'm 37 years old (as you might notice from my username ) and I live in Italy. English is not my language, I'll try to write correctly but please forgive my mistakes!
I've always been really fascinated by the natural world and sciences, especially physics and chemistry; I got my first laser in 1993, it was a weak (but not easy to obtain) red diode. I used it for my high school's final physics exam... I did my demonstration but the examiner had no idea what I was talking about, since she had never seen a laser before!
Currently I have a few more pointers, green and red; the most powerful is a green pointer I bought from a street seller in Rome... I have no idea of its true power. Of course I've never looked into the beam or reflections, but even just looking at the dot puts a strain in the eyes after a couple of seconds. I know there's no way of knowing its power unless using a LPM.
What is weird with this pointer is that while all others I see for sale have a sticker saying <5mw, this has a sticker that says <100mW. I was surprised to find a sticker like that on a laser being sold in the streets.
Anyway... I have other more powerful lasers coming soon (not from WL thanks to you guys). I'm getting the goggles first, just in case the temptation gets too strong!
I have no experience with high-power lasers, but I do know about items that need respect - one of my other hobbies is studying nuclear physics and radioactivity, and I have a decent collection of radioactive samples, some pretty strong; and those too need respect and strict safety precautions. And I value my eyesight a lot!
Well, that's mostly it about me for now. I'm sure I'll like it here (I've actually been a lurker for some time before joining)!
Cristian