Serious Yellow - CNI HPL-589-Q, 8kW, 589.159nm +/-.001nm Laser Guide Star

[Davidx]

Called, got a recording requesting an email. From what I'm reading on Lick observatory, it appears they do have night tours, with hours the laser is operating. looks like they use a 15 watt laser.
I'll stay on them,and will report back how to get a tour.

No reply yet. I'll hammer on them tomorrow.

 

[planters]

I just saw this thread. It is worth seeing these artificial stars if you can. The typical 10W beam will produce a star of around 6th magnitude. If I remember correctly Lick is not very dark, but you might just see the star at the limit of un-aided vision. Raleigh scattering in the lower atmosphere allows you to see the beam close to the dome. As it passes higher, the air thins and the beam fades until, if you able, a faint star can be seen when it passes into the sodium layer.

I'm impressed by CNI's broad range of lasers, but not by their yellow "guide star" laser. I assume it is solid state, but the dye laser I demo-ed a couple of years ago has a smaller diameter beam, lower divergence and 18 W of power. Even wavelength stabilized it would be an order of magnitude more powerful than their entry level laser and an order of magnitude less expensive as well.

 

[Alaskan]

Curious if there is a formula which can be used to get an estimated length a beam is visible in the sky when pointed at 45 degrees or higher for the different visible wavelengths we use, is there such?