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Hey everyone. Don't really know what to make of this topic, but I figured it was worth talking about.
Has everyone heard about all the haboobs recently in Arizona? If you don't know what a haboob is, here is what one of the ones this summer looked like in Arizona:
Basically, it's a huge duststorm that literally eats the city - that particular one was 60 miles long and 30,000 feet high. Really, they are huge.
Anyway, onto the topic at hand - yesterday, there was another haboob. It's quite frightening, when you go outside, the sky is brownish-orange, and you can only see a good 200ft in front of you (at best). But, I realized that, in a town like Phoenix, we don't get fog or mist that lies low to the ground, so this would be my best chance to have fun with my lasers where the beams are clearly visible in the daylight!
So, like any stupid laser enthusiast would do, I brought out my lasers. I was acutely aware of the damage that the fine dust particles could cause to my lasers, but I figured I would keep them in my pocket face-down, use dust-caps, etc.
When playing with them outside, it was incredible - it was bright as all hell, yet the beam was still clearly visible. There was so much particulate in the air that you could barely see the dot of my 150mW green 200ft away or so.
Unfortunately, when I got back to my dorm, I realized that, despite my safety precautions, two of my lenses (of course, the two most expensive I have - two glass ones) were the ones that were damaged. I tried cleaning them, but they are 3-part lenses, which screwed everything up when I soaked them in 91% rubbing alcohol! Anyway, I lost a good 20mW of power output on one and 30mW on the other, but after a couple hours of cleaning, I finally got 'em mostly clean.
Anyway, lesson learned - don't take your lasers out during haboobs!
Has everyone heard about all the haboobs recently in Arizona? If you don't know what a haboob is, here is what one of the ones this summer looked like in Arizona:
Basically, it's a huge duststorm that literally eats the city - that particular one was 60 miles long and 30,000 feet high. Really, they are huge.
Anyway, onto the topic at hand - yesterday, there was another haboob. It's quite frightening, when you go outside, the sky is brownish-orange, and you can only see a good 200ft in front of you (at best). But, I realized that, in a town like Phoenix, we don't get fog or mist that lies low to the ground, so this would be my best chance to have fun with my lasers where the beams are clearly visible in the daylight!
So, like any stupid laser enthusiast would do, I brought out my lasers. I was acutely aware of the damage that the fine dust particles could cause to my lasers, but I figured I would keep them in my pocket face-down, use dust-caps, etc.
When playing with them outside, it was incredible - it was bright as all hell, yet the beam was still clearly visible. There was so much particulate in the air that you could barely see the dot of my 150mW green 200ft away or so.
Unfortunately, when I got back to my dorm, I realized that, despite my safety precautions, two of my lenses (of course, the two most expensive I have - two glass ones) were the ones that were damaged. I tried cleaning them, but they are 3-part lenses, which screwed everything up when I soaked them in 91% rubbing alcohol! Anyway, I lost a good 20mW of power output on one and 30mW on the other, but after a couple hours of cleaning, I finally got 'em mostly clean.
Anyway, lesson learned - don't take your lasers out during haboobs!
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