Maximum PowerVisibility For Green Laser "Curtain".... northern light effect

[iceryan]

Not sure where to start, but the questions are relatively simple.

Trying to create a green laser generated vertical animated ribbon curtain - (akin to northern light effect) - originating from the ceiling or large room downwards. Assisted by low light and mild fog... the green beam-curtain dancing in air is the effect desired... actual line doesnt matter and no projecting onto any screen.

Original idea is to use 500mw or 1000mw green laser module from either aixiz or o-like (other suggestions welcome), ideally with variable controlled power output... and shoot the beam through a line-gen lens in the ceiling truss until line is a few meters wide, where it is reflected 90 degrees downward by a flexi mirror ribbon material being flexed by stepper motors to create the three dimensional dancing wave effect. The effect being the beam-curtain produced, not the actual line.

Question - will there be a huge difference in this kind of install whether it is 500 or 1000mw, or is much of that difference IR or irrelevant.

Question 2 - is it just better to get a 500mw/1W green laser projector to project an animated/scanning dancing wave/line off of a static mirror to similar effect....
-Do you think the curtain visibility will be more or less in this method
-What item do you recommend for purchase in this scenario.

Question 3 - Do you think I am way off on my assumptions or implementations, and do you have suggestions that I very much appreciate...

Thanks and happy new year

 

[Teej]

Re: Maximum PowerVisibility For Green Laser "Curtain".... northern light effect

If using one laser as the point source, and then distributing the beam so as to form a curtain of light in a fog...the appropriate mw would be easier to imagine if the ceiling height to bottom of curtain distance, and the width of the curtain run (including the "folds", etc" distances, were known.

Obviously, to get the described effect, you can't have low fog, or the curtain will "drag on the ground, and not have that up in the air northern light effect.

Essentially, the wider the display, and the taller the display, the more power you'd need to have the same brightness....all else being equal.

Of course, if you have the fog, you could simply PROJECT a movie of the Northern Lights onto it, using the fog as the movie screen, etc.