Its very greeeeeeeeen

[LaNeK779]

that's low clouds, should take much less than 1w

and i wouldn't want to do it because it is a one trick pony really. you sign the laser at the clouds, see the dot, move it around a bit, then do it again, maybe do it the other night too and that's about it... not going to impress tha ladies with it...

much more you can do with a low power laser and a cheap set of galvos / dac projecting little hearts and other "sweet things"

[phljns]

Yes, I was talking about scanning, not waving a handheld pointer about!

[VJ AIWAZ]

here is a video from another PL member (jon of daystar lasers) he was using a 40w laserscope to do this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Lp2...nd=3&lr=1&ob=5

[phljns]

Err wow! Very close to the metal fire escape! I think 40w is a bit too much for me.

[Psi]

That laser terrifies me, it makes my 200mW look like a toy, which just scares me even more because my 200mW is pretty dangerous.

[rszemeti]

I'd agree with what others said, to be effective on cloud scanning you need 20W to 40W really, as always, it depends on your background light, how big an angle you want to scan, how complex a pattern etc etc etc .. but, generally speaking you are not going to have much fun with 1W.

Because most lasers in the 40W class are Q switched, you cannot really run high scan speeds, so you are limited to fairly simple patterns really, like in that video.

100W+ would be stunning though! I saw some really good sized KTP crystals on eBay a while back , 6mm x 6mm x 10mm, with mounts ... and a friend has some nice 400W Haas dual lamp cavities with 10" lamps ))

[phljns]

I have a 100mw red, waiting for some glasses before I switch it on! 20W+ is scary, no cloud scanning for me!

[rszemeti]

That laser terrifies me, it makes my 200mW look like a toy, which just scares me even more because my 200mW is pretty dangerous.

Nah, 200mw is not dangerous, nothing ever accidentally set on fire or exploded with 200mW ... of course, you don't want to stare into the beam, but that goes without saying. There are plenty of lasers around in the 5 to 10Kw class, which truly counts as dangerous, and a few lasers much bigger than that as well, everyting less than 500W is effectively a toy that a pair of decent protective glasses will render harmless for anything other than a direct hit.

There seems to be a tendency on this forum to concentrate on disco lasers and effects made from laser pointers, which is a tiny tiny section of lasers as a whole and concetrated in the lowe power section of laser operations .. there are plenty of much more interesting lasers out there, 200mw is just a decent aiming beam for a proper one

[planters]

Sorry, but I strongly disagree with a 500W-toy threshold. Having experience spending some time working around a 150W cw CO2 and a 50W 532, I think it is fair to say the beam from both is hazardous. You can pop a car tire with the CO2. Really,I've done it. You have to seriously consider where even reflections are going or might go like when you explode a beam line mirror. That was exciting! Anyway, I'm game. What do you have in the way of some alternative laser projects that we can look at and discuss? Not trying to goad you, just interested.

[resonator]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSTEddN0IVo
its all relative.
the motor car is dangerous.
simple, people are afrade of what they donot understand.
this is my old small 60 watt coherent yag laser.
This laser is exstreamly dangerous in the wroung hands,