- Joined
- Nov 2, 2012
- Messages
- 626
- Points
- 43
Everybody knows that one of the legitimate uses of a laser is to point at stars. It works a lot better than trying to point with a finger, going "that star, no, that, that one, right there." People do that and obviously they have no malicious intent.
I point at the sky at night. I'm not going to sit on a high horse and preach about the evils of it and I'm not going to lie about it either. Obviously lasers lend themselves to this sort of thing. I do my very best to not cross paths with any aircraft, cars, and houses. I point at other things too, not always at home. I hadn't put my criteria into any coherent or written form but I still have them, and I imagine most of us do, so my "rules of lasing" amount to more or less the following. I consider them reasonable. What are yours?
1) Try to avoid attracting attention from aircraft, cars, houses, or people in general. If nothing else, randomly pointing at things is what pisses people off and makes it on the news so I just avoid doing it and try to keep the beam away from people and out of sight. Most people are stupid and overreact, it's annoying but I've found it's not worth the negativity of arguing with them so I just don't bother.
2) Sometimes I don't worry too much about people on the ground seeing me pointing at things as long as it's a wall, or the ground, or trees, etc. The farther away the better. Most of the time, I try to avoid letting them see me aiming at the sky because they'll probably misinterpret it and cause problems.
3) Check sky for low aircraft, e.g. low-cruising planes or aircraft on approach... there is a university-owned airport 20-odd miles from my house so we do get them... then wait for it to leave and then make sure it's gone. No lasing at all, period... it's probably not highly visible but who knows. Sometimes planes circle the area (lots of student pilots from the university) but most of them just leave and don't return, so it's a couple of minutes to wait at most. Not a problem.
4) For high aircraft (jetliners) they're 6 miles away at minimum (directly overhead) and are nearly always many miles farther away than that. Frankly I doubt if the plane can see it unless they're almost on axis, which obviously is not the case since I point it away from it! If there are a bunch of them I don't point at all because there are no good angles; everything is ruled out.
If, as is usual, there's only one then I don't worry too much about pointing blue, red, and 405 in the opposite direction. I still avoid green since it's bright compared to the others but I doubt if they can see much of it either. The planes are 10+ miles away, usually through at least some atmospheric haze. We live out in the country so there isn't city air traffic, nearby-airport restrictions aren't relevant to my situation, and most likely nobody will notice a beam 120+ degrees off-axis.
Although to be fair I don't have anything beyond 260mW so it's IIIb / "low" power and not 5 / 10 / 40 watts of 450nm. Obviously that's going to attract some attention and I highly don't recommend it.
5) If the sky looks clear it's OK to point all colors. Pointing at the sky etc. is cool. I see little reason to call it a problem when the right precautions are taken, and in general I believe people are capable of being smart about their lasers if they choose to do so.
6) Don't point at cars or bikes either. I specifically check for roadways in the background and avoid pointing at them even if no cars are on it. Making a mistake here could get somebody killed, it's worse than pointing at a plane. There's zero benefit to pointing at a road, everything about it makes it a terrible target, including visually so it's an easy "no" item for me.
7) Safety glasses generally not used since there are no optical systems or mirror balls or other sources of random beams involved. But if there's any question of whether safety glasses would be needed, I don't point them in public, period, as a mistake here could possibly, for real, get me sued or worse.
8) Most public indoor situations off-limits but again, if there's nobody around to see it and I'm sure of that, I don't consider it a problem. Limited, selected audiences only.
9) That's pretty much it, new things considered as needed, I just try to focus on being as low key as possible and try to be objective and avoid kidding myself as to whether or not people are likely to see. If I'm not going to keep/use the lasers solely inside my house, it's the best I can do.
* * *
I'm sure I'm anathema/Satan/cancer to some people now, some will never approve of it no matter what and I'm ok with that. I'm still going to be careful. The rest of you, what do you think?
I point at the sky at night. I'm not going to sit on a high horse and preach about the evils of it and I'm not going to lie about it either. Obviously lasers lend themselves to this sort of thing. I do my very best to not cross paths with any aircraft, cars, and houses. I point at other things too, not always at home. I hadn't put my criteria into any coherent or written form but I still have them, and I imagine most of us do, so my "rules of lasing" amount to more or less the following. I consider them reasonable. What are yours?
1) Try to avoid attracting attention from aircraft, cars, houses, or people in general. If nothing else, randomly pointing at things is what pisses people off and makes it on the news so I just avoid doing it and try to keep the beam away from people and out of sight. Most people are stupid and overreact, it's annoying but I've found it's not worth the negativity of arguing with them so I just don't bother.
2) Sometimes I don't worry too much about people on the ground seeing me pointing at things as long as it's a wall, or the ground, or trees, etc. The farther away the better. Most of the time, I try to avoid letting them see me aiming at the sky because they'll probably misinterpret it and cause problems.
3) Check sky for low aircraft, e.g. low-cruising planes or aircraft on approach... there is a university-owned airport 20-odd miles from my house so we do get them... then wait for it to leave and then make sure it's gone. No lasing at all, period... it's probably not highly visible but who knows. Sometimes planes circle the area (lots of student pilots from the university) but most of them just leave and don't return, so it's a couple of minutes to wait at most. Not a problem.
4) For high aircraft (jetliners) they're 6 miles away at minimum (directly overhead) and are nearly always many miles farther away than that. Frankly I doubt if the plane can see it unless they're almost on axis, which obviously is not the case since I point it away from it! If there are a bunch of them I don't point at all because there are no good angles; everything is ruled out.
If, as is usual, there's only one then I don't worry too much about pointing blue, red, and 405 in the opposite direction. I still avoid green since it's bright compared to the others but I doubt if they can see much of it either. The planes are 10+ miles away, usually through at least some atmospheric haze. We live out in the country so there isn't city air traffic, nearby-airport restrictions aren't relevant to my situation, and most likely nobody will notice a beam 120+ degrees off-axis.
Although to be fair I don't have anything beyond 260mW so it's IIIb / "low" power and not 5 / 10 / 40 watts of 450nm. Obviously that's going to attract some attention and I highly don't recommend it.
5) If the sky looks clear it's OK to point all colors. Pointing at the sky etc. is cool. I see little reason to call it a problem when the right precautions are taken, and in general I believe people are capable of being smart about their lasers if they choose to do so.
6) Don't point at cars or bikes either. I specifically check for roadways in the background and avoid pointing at them even if no cars are on it. Making a mistake here could get somebody killed, it's worse than pointing at a plane. There's zero benefit to pointing at a road, everything about it makes it a terrible target, including visually so it's an easy "no" item for me.
7) Safety glasses generally not used since there are no optical systems or mirror balls or other sources of random beams involved. But if there's any question of whether safety glasses would be needed, I don't point them in public, period, as a mistake here could possibly, for real, get me sued or worse.
8) Most public indoor situations off-limits but again, if there's nobody around to see it and I'm sure of that, I don't consider it a problem. Limited, selected audiences only.
9) That's pretty much it, new things considered as needed, I just try to focus on being as low key as possible and try to be objective and avoid kidding myself as to whether or not people are likely to see. If I'm not going to keep/use the lasers solely inside my house, it's the best I can do.
* * *
I'm sure I'm anathema/Satan/cancer to some people now, some will never approve of it no matter what and I'm ok with that. I'm still going to be careful. The rest of you, what do you think?
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