question about 445 and looking at beam (distance)

[lpstealth]

Hi guys first off I want to say a have a pair of OD7+ glasses and always always wear them when using my laser except for looking at the beam outdoors.

Now my question. there is a mountain 10 kilometers away and I was wondering if it would be safe to essentially look straight at it from that distance or would it not diverge enough by then. I ask because I want to be safe but would also like to do an experiment and see if it is possible to see the beam and what the brightness would be at that distance.

The laser hasn't been properly metered since my meter only goes to 1 watt but it should be about 1.5W

Thanks.

 

[Blord]

At 10Km the laser is nothing more than a bright light. The 445nm beam diverge pretty quickly and it doesn't harm anything at that distance.
Still use your common sense when shining lasers outside. Make sure there is nobody in the area you are shining just in case.

 

[Ash]

Not dangerous at that distance:

 

[John Capelo]

"keep going to your right....wait....you're going away from me"
lmao something tells me this guy isn't the brightest light in the bunch.

 

[lpstealth]

Thanks, that's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure before I did something stupid.

 

[Ash]

From a few hundred or so meters, not safe to get hit in the eye with the beam:

:undecided:

 

[steveclv]

You need to find out the NOHD of your laser.

If you want to calculate it then try here

http://www.optique-ingenieur.org

If that's a bit much then as our lasers are built using pretty much the same diodes and optics you can use a comparison with another laser of similar power.

My 1.2W laser has a NOHD of between 400 and 500 yards, so about half a kilometer.

At 10km you should be fine but I suggest using a tripod so that you are not waving it around and risking hitting something closer by mistake.