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- Jul 10, 2015
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It depends on the time of day and the humidity, also the angle and distance.
You could at your own risk try safely walking around your back yard with the laser secured and safely terminated and look at how visible it is from variable distances and angles, notice the intensity of the visible lens flare with and without a shroud.
A beam looks the brightest coming at you, 2nd brightest going away from you, from the side it fades fast, but lens flare stands out from a wide angle and fairly long distance even when a beam may not be visible, see rayleigh scattering.
p.s. If a car drives by or person walks by I stop lasing, actually as soon as I hear a car before I even see it I stop unless I am in my backyard and not in line of sight of the street or pointing to the ground with my back to the street, but always be aware of your ability to create a distraction be it intentionally or not, you are better off simply not drawing attention, drawing attention is distracting and could put you in the wrong.
The worst case would be pointing across the street ( empty street ) at a tree line when an approaching car sees not your beam but lens flare and being novice the observer thinks you have targeted them, even though you stopped lasing before they passed under your beam, this is where a flare hider buys you time as modest power beam disappear from the side over a short distance, but lens flare stands out for a long way and in every direction that it's in line of sight.
I am not advocating anything illegal or dangerous, just suggesting we hide our lens flare to avoid unintended distractions.
You could at your own risk try safely walking around your back yard with the laser secured and safely terminated and look at how visible it is from variable distances and angles, notice the intensity of the visible lens flare with and without a shroud.
A beam looks the brightest coming at you, 2nd brightest going away from you, from the side it fades fast, but lens flare stands out from a wide angle and fairly long distance even when a beam may not be visible, see rayleigh scattering.
p.s. If a car drives by or person walks by I stop lasing, actually as soon as I hear a car before I even see it I stop unless I am in my backyard and not in line of sight of the street or pointing to the ground with my back to the street, but always be aware of your ability to create a distraction be it intentionally or not, you are better off simply not drawing attention, drawing attention is distracting and could put you in the wrong.
The worst case would be pointing across the street ( empty street ) at a tree line when an approaching car sees not your beam but lens flare and being novice the observer thinks you have targeted them, even though you stopped lasing before they passed under your beam, this is where a flare hider buys you time as modest power beam disappear from the side over a short distance, but lens flare stands out for a long way and in every direction that it's in line of sight.
I am not advocating anything illegal or dangerous, just suggesting we hide our lens flare to avoid unintended distractions.
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