SAFE ways to look at my beam?

[saypat]

Hi again. I found another way to ask my question. I have a 70mW green laser. I'm new at this, but studying hard. What are SAFE ways to look at my laser beam without goggles. Please give examples, specifics, for indoor and outdoor.
Can I shine my laser beam into the night sky and look at the beam without goggles? Is that safe?

1. indoor

2. outdoor

am I being paranoid?

p.s. don't laugh, many noobs are probably getting a lot from this...

THANK YOU ALL!
patrick

 

[Brenner]

You are never paranoid when it comes to the safety.

You can look at green beam as long as you want if:

You direct it at the night sky. Outdoor. Be careful - do not shine it at the airplane, or any flying human operated device!

Indoor (it is not recommended) but: as long as you do not have any reflective objects that might bounce beam back to your (or somebody else) eyes. Never look at the point of impact >> Point (dot) where beam is hitting the wall without glasses.

Playing with mirrors/laser is a big no.

 

[tsteele93]

Generally speaking, shining outdoors into the sky with a 70mW green is going to be safe. Your only real risk is if you were to somehow drop it and beam your eye or hit a nearby mirror or glass.


I found this to be interesting from SONY,

Guidelines of Measures for Prevention of Injury by Laser Light Purpose

The guidelines are aimed at eliminating the possibility of injury to the workers who engage in laser device handling or services in which they might be exposed to laser light (referred to as laser-related work hereinafter)....(referred to as service workers).

Laser equipment classification....based on the degrees of the effects the laser equipment, categorized as defined in the accompanying sheet on the basis of the radiation exposure limits corresponding to the wavelengths and durations of laser light generated by the laser devices, cause on the human body. The meaning of each of the classes is defined below.

Class 1 : Laser equipment with a low output (approximately 0.39μw or less) which does not cause any injury to the human body.

Class 2 : Laser equipment with an output of such level of visible light (400 to 700nm in wavelength) that enables the defensive reaction of the human body to avert injury (approximately 1mW).

Class 3A : Laser equipment with an output which makes direct observation of the beam by optical means dangerous and which is less than five times the output of class 2 (approximately 5mW or less).

Class 3B : Laser equipment with an output that can cause eye injury if exposed to directly but which does not cause eye injury if exposed to diffused reflected (approximately 500mW or less).

Class 4 : Laser equipment with an output which can cause eye injury even if exposed to diffused and reflected beam (approximately more than 0.5W) Note) 1W=103mW=106μW

That is somewhat reassuring...