Is the "Star Shower Laser Light" (As seen on TV) safe?)

[zyxwv99]

http://www.getstarshower.com/?uid=D...68&gclid=CInx4NnW1McCFUzmfgodTswDrQ&gclsrc=ds:wtf:



Yesterday I saw this TV commercial for a plug-in device that looks like two lasers, red and green, with a "stars" attachment (diffraction grating). The problem is 1) it looks pretty powerful, and 2) in one image people are sitting on the couch with this thing shining in their eyes.

In the review forums people discuss getting hit in the eye and wondering if they're safe. Then they say things like, "Well, I haven't gone blind yet, so it must be safe."

I've read studies on photochemical damage to the eye, and I don't think you need to go blind to experience eye damage.

So what do you think?

 

[Cyparagon]

1) it looks pretty powerful, and 2) in one image people are sitting on the couch with this thing shining in their eyes.

1) is speculation.

2) means nothing unless the power of a single "beamlette" is over class 1.

40mW divided into 200 beams for example would make it harmless.

 

[Benm]

Link doesn't work from here, but i presume it is this product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRaTgfnuI14

If the lasers in there are 40 mW each i suppose that result video is exposed quite liberally, or just plain tricked.

From a safety standpoind all that matters is how much is in the strongest of the beams produced, and it seems reasonable to assume that with 40 mW lasers this will not be beyond one mW.

As for the idea behind the product: Sounds like a fun thing to build using a watt or so of blue next xmas, if i get bored

 

[thebouljello]

I was wondering the same thing when I saw this advertised. What if a few of the beams miss the house and shine somewhere where they shouldn't?

 

[hakzaw1]

any stray beams going next door should be no real problem..

to get injuried you woulld have to be real close ..like a foot away- and take the beam directly thru the center of your eye and hold still and not blink AND get the laser to STOP

audience scanning is done safely with lasers having much more power ( but also more safety precautions- like scan-fail)

distance and widening beams lessen the danger a LOT.

RG 'bliss' lights can be gotten at greedbay auction for a little as 14$

I bought some just to harvest the parts inside for LUMIA







MILLION and millions of hours of USA laser shows with no real injuries

 

[Benm]

Perhaps one concern for stray beams is them going off into the sky, which would be very likely to happen if you aim one of these device on the front of your house attempting to conver it in dots completely.

It could be disstractive to pilots but never cause eye injury. Considering the power ouput and beam splits in these devices i doubt it would look any brighter than say a halogen worklight in your yard, so i don't think there would be any real problems... unless they want to make one out of it because the generally hate lasers

 

[thebouljello]

any stray beams going next door should be no real problem..

to get injuried you woulld have to be real close ..like a foot away- and take the beam directly thru the center of your eye and hold still and not blink AND get the laser to STOP

audience scanning is done safely with lasers having much more power ( but also more safety precautions- like scan-fail)

distance and widening beams lessen the danger a LOT.

RG 'bliss' lights can be gotten at greedbay auction for a little as 14$

I bought some just to harvest the parts inside for LUMIA







MILLION and millions of hours of USA laser shows with no real injuries

Perhaps one concern for stray beams is them going off into the sky, which would be very likely to happen if you aim one of these device on the front of your house attempting to conver it in dots completely.

It could be disstractive to pilots but never cause eye injury. Considering the power ouput and beam splits in these devices i doubt it would look any brighter than say a halogen worklight in your yard, so i don't think there would be any real problems... unless they want to make one out of it because the generally hate lasers

Makes sense. The beams aren't powerful enough and they are viewed too far away to cause any problems.

 

[zyxwv99]

Thanks for the feedback everybody. It never occurred to me that the same technology is used in nightclubs.

 

[trussmonkey25]

These are used the at the Gay clubs all the time down here. No one was ever injured. Even the City of Largo used something similar for the Christmas display in the park.

 

[hakzaw1]

Perhaps one concern for stray beams is them going off into the sky, which would be very likely to happen if you aim one of these device on the front of your house attempting to conver it in dots completely.

It could be disstractive to pilots but never cause eye injury. Considering the power ouput and beam splits in these devices i doubt it would look any brighter than say a halogen worklight in your yard, so i don't think there would be any real problems... unless they want to make one out of it because the generally hate lasers

SPOT ON CORRECT^^

BTW the huge spike in laser on aircraft incidents is due to IMHO several factors including Ben's comment on the laser haters

at one point in time here pilots had no specific rule to report getting lased or just seeing a laser from the air ( A HUGE diff imho)

it was kinda new and rare

Then the FAA iirc made it manditory to report lasers AIMED at them- and as lasers became so much more popular those numbers rose nearly every year
THEN I think they were required to report ALL laser sightings-- and that IMO is worthless data and totally skews the facts/stats

Those reporting 'injuries' remind me of people in minor car accidents who climb out of the car crying about neck/back pain (trannslation-PAYDAY)

all this does NO GOOD for the REAL problem-

TERRIBLE distraction upon landing or take-off-- any disruption of the chunking prosess is extremely dangerous --

ATM around 12 reports per day in USA of lasers on aircraft --they do afaik still reports all sighting except there is a seperation between the two-

NOW wtf

to me sometimes i think they do NOT want to do the things that will help??
The TSA has a zillion workers feeling us up and scanning us..
where are the evening (laser dont do well at noon) patrols looking for lasers and hearing from the actual pilots when the incident is on-going
where are the camera drones ?
with a now $20,000 FBI reward .. by now I would think somebody is actively going to do what the FAA and TSA are not.

We all can do more and I am not talking about posts here.

have any members really made sure no laser or even parts were sold to some minor with BAD IDEAS or ADULT FOR THAT MATTER.


Teachers and parents must share in the blame if that game is being played.

Do the Science teachers know whats going on?

ALL TEACHERS need to teach even pre school about laser danger


GIVE THOUGHT TO THIS PLEASE

Reach out to the nearest Science HS teacher and just have a chat
you can do that from home right?

Ask about the teacher's classes about lasers-

Offer to loan some of yours or come to talk to the class

there is NO way to lessen the attraction humans have with lights of all kinds beginning of course with FIRE

IF any of you do this-- be careful about what you say- and show


Lighting a match shows the power but can give some bad ideas
showing the pics of a retinal burn as well can balance this out

Steering them to Laserpointersafety.com . BEFORE sending them here makes sense..

Undoubtably we have members here who have lased aircraft once or more

and some who will do it again-- after all they did not get caught and the plane did not burst into flames- its a prank right?
my hommies made me do it
my hommies took my greenie and they did it NOT.. ME
anyway dog, you can see the beam stops way before the plane so-- no harm .. if they were so bad ...howcome i could buy it?

I do see a problem with the laser showers
no doubt they are quite safe
BUT some may take that and apply it to a more dangerous laser

you odds are better to hit the lotto or get struck by lightning than getting really blinded by a 100mw green

the eye is about 7mm
but only if the beam hits the center of your eye's lens will it make a burn
same as the sun and a mag glass
that is how BM Ranger Kelli lost an eye-last year
and some harm to the other

I hope the docs were wrong and she healed better. She was intentionally looking at the laser trying to find the jerkwad who had been shinning it a LOT at people eyes then running off. Just doing her 'job'

so she took the one in millions shot to the eyes
magnifies the power by thousands!
IIRC they think he had a 100mW 532
with ~70,000 attendees catching this person IIRC failed.

btw she has a 'fund me' if you want to help her.

old pic of her
link
http://blog.burningman.com/2015/03/...-black-dot-in-the-middle-of-everything-i-see/

^^^ some misconceptions but basically accurate

 

[Benm]

The primary error in legislation is that it is specific to lasers.

In all honesty there is no real difference in distraction or eye damage that depends on the source. A big xenon-short-arc searchlight would be just as distracting and even dangerous as any laser pointer.

That said i can see the reasoning behind making it illegal to point lights of any sort at aircraft, but make the criterium of what is a violation perfectly clear.

It would be perfectly reasonable to say that it should be illegal to illuminate aircraft under 10.000 ft with over 100 lux during nighttime or 1000 lux during daytime from the ground. The burden of proof would however be with prosecution in such cases, and given the divergence of a typical laser pointer that treshold would not be reached unless standing on end of the runway.

The lux (as in lm/m2) numbers make sense to me: 100 is about the brightness in a poorly lit hallway, 1000 is what you get outside on an overcast day. A pilot in an airliner 35.000 feet up might be able to see your 1 watt green if accidentily pointed in its direction, but the illumination would be well beyond what would be considered seriously distracting. Also, during daytime chances are you would not even notice the aircraft being there, or even be able to see it at all. It's hard to hit something you cannot see, and just as hard to avoid hitting things you cannot see.

 

[exlaserjock]

I just experienced having one of these devices shine into my home windows. They are brighter than I find acceptable. With regard to safety: 40 mW divided evenly among 200 beams would be safe. However, it is clear to me that the light is not evenly divided. My bigger concern is that green laser light is most commonly made by doubling infrared laser light. The infrared will still be present, cannot be seen, and can be very strong. If the device is not properly filtered to eliminate the infrared, this would likely be the greatest hazard. I haven;t found enough technical data to tell.

 

[thebouljello]

I just experienced having one of these devices shine into my home windows. They are brighter than I find acceptable. With regard to safety: 40 mW divided evenly among 200 beams would be safe. However, it is clear to me that the light is not evenly divided. My bigger concern is that green laser light is most commonly made by doubling infrared laser light. The infrared will still be present, cannot be seen, and can be very strong. If the device is not properly filtered to eliminate the infrared, this would likely be the greatest hazard. I haven;t found enough technical data to tell.

When 40mw is divided among about 200 beams, each dot is about <1mw, which is not dangerous. At <1mw, infrared is not dangerous either.

 

[longtimealaskan]

My wife bought one of these gadgets so I read this thread with great interest. Several members commented on some of the laser beams going into the sky. product comes with the following guidelines/information:
1. Star Shower's ultra bright laser lights can project from 100 yards away, which is optimal for any size home!
2. Star Shower lights are safe as the laser is defracted but neither pets nor people should look directly into the lens for any extended period.
3. Do not "intentionally" shine into eyes or face.
4. Lasers must meet rigorous FDA regulations and Consumer Product Safety standards. Star Shower should be pointed directly at your home and never directly into the sky. Lasers should not be projected at or within the flight path of an aircraft within 10 nautical miles of an airport. If your intended surface is within 10 nautical miles of an airport, lower the angle of the Star Shower so that no lasers point into the sky.

I know nothing about lasers except they can cause injury if not used properly but I find a major disconnect between the statement that the laser can project from 100 yards away vs the laser can not be projected at or within the flight path of an aircraft within 10 nautical miles of an airport. If it isn't considered safe for aircraft at 9.5 nautical miles I don't see how it could be considered safe for people less than 100 yards away aimed at the house.

 

[NightExplorer96]

There was a story near Sacramento, California of a pilot who got hit by a green laser light. Turns out, it was one of the Star Shower's and it was aimed too high, right into the cockpit of a little Cessna(I believe the plane was). The guy didn't get into trouble but it shows how far even low powered lasers can go.

Funny enough, while doing a night shift at Walgreens a couple people were buying these(did I mention they sell like hotcakes? We sellout right after we get more) and were concerned about laser safety I explain to try and aim it so the top most dot dosen't go past your the roof of your house and we kept talking and they agreed people who purposely shone lasers at airplanes are idiots, which made me have hope in our hobby hehe

All in all, it's cool more and more people are interested in lasers, but having safety behind it will lead to all of us enjoying light whether for a hobby or a Star Shower! :yh:

-Alex

 

[GSS]

Wow, talk about the coincidence of a laser guy working the store like Walgreens that sells this product seasonly. Im curious as to do you not recommend this to people "if the manager is not looking". I realize people are going to buy this regardless but giving good advice is great and I guess your "duty" as a laser guy