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newuser1492
Registered: 06/12/03
Posts: 3,104
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: Mushmonkey]
#3583156 - 01/05/05 06:58 AM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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I'd have to say I'm with mush on this one.
mabus - are you trying to say that your laser pointer actually strikes the moon's surface and you can see the point on the moon's surface through the laser? Even if you could how would that help you steady the telescope?
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psilomonkey
Twisted brainwrong of a oneoff man mental
Registered: 08/08/03
Posts: 812
Loc: Airstrip One
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: z@z.com]
#3583237 - 01/05/05 07:33 AM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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So does pointing it at the sky help? If so what does it reflect off of?
The atmosphere.
I have played with one of these before, you can see quite a strong beam.
The one I played with was Class II (UK Legal) could only cause damage of you stared into beam for a few minutes, but its still bloody bright. USA Legal ones can be more powerful (Class III) and could cause damage in a few seconds seconds if viewed directly.
Interfering with aircraft is bloody irresponsible.
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lonestar2004
Live to party,work to affordit.
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 8,978
Loc: South Texas
Last seen: 13 years, 2 days
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: Toricious]
#3583270 - 01/05/05 08:01 AM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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first he claimed his daughter aimed the device at the helicopter. trying to set up his kid? give his sorry ass 20 years.
-------------------- America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure" We have "reckless fiscal policies" America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better Barack Obama
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kaiowas
lest we baguette
Registered: 07/14/03
Posts: 5,501
Loc: oz
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: ]
#3583288 - 01/05/05 08:11 AM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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he might be a jackass, but to jail someone for it is insane. patriot act indeed pfft. how far are we willing to go to limit ourselves and agree with it?
-------------------- Annnnnnd I had a light saber and my friend was there and I said "you look like an indian" and he said "you look like satan" and he found a stick and a rock and he named the rock ooga booga and he named the stick Stick and we both thought that was pretty funny. We got eaten alive by mosquitos but didn't notice til the next day. I stepped on some glass while wading in the swamp and cut my foot open, didn't bother me til the next day either....yeah it was a good time, ended the night by buying some liquor for minors and drinking nips and going to he diner and eating chicken fingers, and then I went home and went to bed.
Edited by kaiowas (01/05/05 08:11 AM)
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psilomonkey
Twisted brainwrong of a oneoff man mental
Registered: 08/08/03
Posts: 812
Loc: Airstrip One
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: Mushmonkey]
#3583296 - 01/05/05 08:13 AM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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errm.. using lasers for telescope collimation is very standard practice. When setting up a telescope you need to focus the optics to get a nice sharp image. You can do this by focusing on a guide star, the problem is as you make adjustments to the telescope you make it wobble and loose sight of your guide star. By using a laser to create an artificial guide star, the guide point moves with the telescope, saving a lot of pain. The light you see is the result of atmospheric back scatter. Here is a vendor selling one made just for the job. http://www.oemlasers.com/astronomy.html
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mabus
anguish this!
Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 956
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: psilomonkey]
#3583351 - 01/05/05 08:36 AM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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I hope that guy gets a jury of his peers.
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: Toricious]
#3583382 - 01/05/05 09:02 AM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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Wow that is certainly quite silly!
While I don't know of any real use for a handheld laser pointer in astronomy...lasers ARE used by some to find the distance to the moon or other NEARBY objects.
A laser pointer could NOT do that. They are restricted to under 1mW of power (thats one MILLI-WATT) and are not very well collimated. The beam spreads out a LOT as the distance increases (unlike many traditional gas/solid-state lasers). By the time your laser pointer hit the moon you would not be able to see it. It just isn't powerful enough.
The other thing is: does anyone know HOW DIFFICULT it would be to actually shine one of these things into the eye of a pilot in a jet 30,000 feet in the air moving at several hundred km an hour? Not only that, but to hit the pilot AND copilot? Have you ever held a laser pointer and tried to aim it at something even 50-100 meter away? It isn't that easy...even the SLIGHTEST wiggle of the pointer turns into a sweep of SEVERAL meters at the endpoint.
Further, handheld laser pointers are NOT cabable of blinding a person, or causing any kind of damage to the retina. They are all restricted to under 1mW, and it takes at LEAST 5mW before eye damage/blinding can occur. I have had people shine laser pointers in my eyes before, and it does not cause "temporary blindness" or anything of the sort. Only WHILE the spot is pointed directly at your pupil do you see a bright red light...and even then it is only in a single eye - the one the spot is pointing at. The moment you remove the spot, your vision returns to normal. We also have some built-in defense mechanisms for too much light entering the eye. If you shine a laser pointer in someone's eye, they will look away quickly without even thinking about doing so.
So again: they're trying to say that this guy managed to use a handheld laser pointer to "temporarily blind" TWO people in the cockpit of an aircraft IN FLIGHT several thousand feet away from him?
I call BS....
--------------------
Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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lonestar2004
Live to party,work to affordit.
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 8,978
Loc: South Texas
Last seen: 13 years, 2 days
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: trendal]
#3583435 - 01/05/05 09:33 AM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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i just think the guy is sorry for lying to the FBI and blaming his daughter. shit marhta got 6 months for lying. there have been cases of pilots being distracted from these lasers before. but only distracted.
-------------------- America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure" We have "reckless fiscal policies" America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better Barack Obama
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d33p
Welcome to Violence
Registered: 07/12/03
Posts: 5,381
Loc: the shores of Tripoli
Last seen: 10 years, 10 months
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: trendal]
#3584561 - 01/05/05 02:53 PM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
trendal said: Wow that is certainly quite silly!
While I don't know of any real use for a handheld laser pointer in astronomy...lasers ARE used by some to find the distance to the moon or other NEARBY objects.
A laser pointer could NOT do that. They are restricted to under 1mW of power (thats one MILLI-WATT) and are not very well collimated. The beam spreads out a LOT as the distance increases (unlike many traditional gas/solid-state lasers). By the time your laser pointer hit the moon you would not be able to see it. It just isn't powerful enough.
The other thing is: does anyone know HOW DIFFICULT it would be to actually shine one of these things into the eye of a pilot in a jet 30,000 feet in the air moving at several hundred km an hour? Not only that, but to hit the pilot AND copilot? Have you ever held a laser pointer and tried to aim it at something even 50-100 meter away? It isn't that easy...even the SLIGHTEST wiggle of the pointer turns into a sweep of SEVERAL meters at the endpoint.
Further, handheld laser pointers are NOT cabable of blinding a person, or causing any kind of damage to the retina. They are all restricted to under 1mW, and it takes at LEAST 5mW before eye damage/blinding can occur. I have had people shine laser pointers in my eyes before, and it does not cause "temporary blindness" or anything of the sort. Only WHILE the spot is pointed directly at your pupil do you see a bright red light...and even then it is only in a single eye - the one the spot is pointing at. The moment you remove the spot, your vision returns to normal. We also have some built-in defense mechanisms for too much light entering the eye. If you shine a laser pointer in someone's eye, they will look away quickly without even thinking about doing so.
So again: they're trying to say that this guy managed to use a handheld laser pointer to "temporarily blind" TWO people in the cockpit of an aircraft IN FLIGHT several thousand feet away from him?
I call BS....
I agree, this is ludacris. Just the idea of hitting a small object 3,000 feet up moving at a couple hundred mph and staying on that object (not even the whole airplane but just the cockpit window) for a few seconds is ridiculous.
Also, last time i checked you can fly a plane easily without looking out of the cockpit once.
It really seems like this story must have come out of the onion.
-------------------- I'm a nihilist. Lets be friends. bang bang
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Great_Satan
prophet of God
Registered: 09/05/04
Posts: 953
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: d33p]
#3584899 - 01/05/05 04:04 PM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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He was pointing a green laser at aircraft and interfering with the ability of the pilot to fly the plane. This is terrorism.
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lonestar2004
Live to party,work to affordit.
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 8,978
Loc: South Texas
Last seen: 13 years, 2 days
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Re: Insanities south of Canada's border [Re: Great_Satan]
#3585016 - 01/05/05 04:21 PM (19 years, 2 months ago) |
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make an example of the jack ass, but remember all the government will do is outlaw laser pointers.
and when laser pointers are outlawed, only outlaws will have laser pointers.....
-------------------- America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure" We have "reckless fiscal policies" America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better Barack Obama
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