So when did it hit you?

[ColdWelder]

It hit me whilst gathering ancient photonic remnants of a dying island universe in my backyard. I thought, "This thing would be a hell of a lot easier to find in my inverted, equatorial, Newtonian telescope, if I had some kind of sighting supplement that was 500 meters long...."..."A Laser!!"

So I first went to the library, then eventually ended up here looking for answers on putting a purpose-built laser on my light-bucket. And I found them! But now the fascination has dug itself deeper than a sight for my telescope, I'm hooked! I think I'll stay. Thanks to Mohrenberg, Flaminpyro, Styropyro, qumefox, Pontiaccg5, and everyone else that has been mighty helpful on my quest to amassing unspeakable power.

So, when did it hit you?

 

[Misanthrop]

Definately the 1mW red keychain lasers, that was my beginning point.

 

[ElektroFreak]

Once a LOOOOOONG time ago I went into a local ham radio/electronic surplus shop where they had a tiny HeNe spirograph on their counter as a demo of a kit of parts they sold. I didn't buy the kit, but I did end up with a HeNe a short time later so i built my own. That was when I was 13 years old, so back in 1993..

5k posts! neeto

 

[StardustSprinkles]

For me it was this little 20mW 650nm pen my grandpa had when I was little, I was amazed how intense the dot was over distance. Of course he never let me use it once until I brought over the bigger stick... I did that with my first 5mW green, and went from there lol.

 

[Fiddy]

early high skool, the 1mW red pointers...then some of kids where getting the green pens then it took off from there!

 

[vk2fro]

About 13yo - built a helium neon laser power supple to drive a 3mw head.

Then came a bigger one, then an argon (also a home built supply).

These days playing with a watt of power or more, and big cap banks