Rodomontade
New member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2019
- Messages
- 6
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- 1
I'm new here and far from an expert. That said, here is my observation.
A buddy and I happen to have performance boats.
We were on Seneca lake that is approximately 37 miles long and has very good line of sight.
My buddy stayed in mostly one place at the Watkins Glen end and fired an Arctic laser parallel to the water surface (very low to the waterline to virtually eliminate the possibility of lasing an innocent boater/person). We could both very clearly see the point where the laser abruptly stopped. (this was completely within the planet boundary layer so that eliminated that variable).
I took off in my boat and headed for the point where the laser disappeared from vision right up to where I could inspect the vanishing point. I was able to boat the the exact spot it vanished. The beam, while wider, at that point went to a very faint full scatter of light that was not visible from the starting point almost as though it was going through a type of wide angle lens.
As far as I am concerned the the viewing angle has zero to do with the phenomenon mentioned many times before. Also the theory of the PBL is eliminated as a possibility.
Now I went (carefully) the best I could and looked back (with laser safety glasses) toward the laser origination point and can say it was clearly visible from far past the point it appeared to vanish. It was hard to say just how powerful it was because my safety glasses blocked most of the blue light. The beam was impossible to hold steady at that distance due to the originating boat bobbing around.
So to summarize:
1) Planet Boundary Layer theory proven wrong
2) The trigonometry theory of viewing angle proven wrong
I'm still trying to find why this beam termination actually happens.
If anyone can elaborate constructively in addition to this unscientific test I would greatly appreciate it.
Sorry for the long read and my lack of signature. I'll work on that next.
EDIT Reason: SP
A buddy and I happen to have performance boats.
We were on Seneca lake that is approximately 37 miles long and has very good line of sight.
My buddy stayed in mostly one place at the Watkins Glen end and fired an Arctic laser parallel to the water surface (very low to the waterline to virtually eliminate the possibility of lasing an innocent boater/person). We could both very clearly see the point where the laser abruptly stopped. (this was completely within the planet boundary layer so that eliminated that variable).
I took off in my boat and headed for the point where the laser disappeared from vision right up to where I could inspect the vanishing point. I was able to boat the the exact spot it vanished. The beam, while wider, at that point went to a very faint full scatter of light that was not visible from the starting point almost as though it was going through a type of wide angle lens.
As far as I am concerned the the viewing angle has zero to do with the phenomenon mentioned many times before. Also the theory of the PBL is eliminated as a possibility.
Now I went (carefully) the best I could and looked back (with laser safety glasses) toward the laser origination point and can say it was clearly visible from far past the point it appeared to vanish. It was hard to say just how powerful it was because my safety glasses blocked most of the blue light. The beam was impossible to hold steady at that distance due to the originating boat bobbing around.
So to summarize:
1) Planet Boundary Layer theory proven wrong
2) The trigonometry theory of viewing angle proven wrong
I'm still trying to find why this beam termination actually happens.
If anyone can elaborate constructively in addition to this unscientific test I would greatly appreciate it.
Sorry for the long read and my lack of signature. I'll work on that next.
EDIT Reason: SP
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