Unauthorized Laser Illumination Event

"Gatt" wrote in message
...


Possibly. On the other hand, there just might be an annoying teenager in
the neighborhood who has been harassing neighbors, traffic, pets, etc.
The thing with laser-geeks is they can't seem to control themselves.
And, who knows...maybe one of those neighbors is also a pilot.

And Marco marked the area with a GPS. I'm not sure I would have.

Can't hurt.

I was wondering on the chances of finding the guy as well but after doing a
search on the term "laser" on the FBI website, they seem to be able to find
at least a few of them. Some cases were laughable (i.e. the gut who painted
a police helicopter equipped with night vision) and others did not seem as
easy to catch. But catch they did.

Marco

Judah wrote:
"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in
:

Judah wrote:

I just hope that the noise grumblers don't get the same idea...

I disagree. Hoping of course they don' hurt anyone it would be nice to
put a few of them in jail.

What do you think are the chances of finding the guy, let alone prosecuting
him?

I'd say pretty slim at best. And Marco marked the area with a GPS. I'm not
sure I would have.


ok ill bite; why are you 'not sure you would have' marked the spot
with your GPS? Do I need to make a tinfoil hat before hearing your
answer?

the warlock society wrote in
oups.com:

ok ill bite; why are you 'not sure you would have' marked the spot
with your GPS? Do I need to make a tinfoil hat before hearing your
answer?

No conspiracy theories or anything. Just cynicism and/or pragmatism.

I just don't think I would spend the time and money to go around and hunt
down this guy after a one-time incident. If it happened a second time I would
probably do it.

the warlock society writes:

ok ill bite; why are you 'not sure you would have' marked the spot
with your GPS? Do I need to make a tinfoil hat before hearing your
answer?

Apart from the potential futility of doing so, there's also the danger that
you'd get zapped with the laser again.

Judah wrote:
"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in
:

Judah wrote:

I just hope that the noise grumblers don't get the same idea...

I disagree. Hoping of course they don' hurt anyone it would be nice to
put a few of them in jail.

What do you think are the chances of finding the guy, let alone prosecuting
him?

I'd say pretty slim at best. And Marco marked the area with a GPS. I'm not
sure I would have.

Laser Beamed at Plane Leads to N.J. Man's Arrest

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2005Jan4.html

Idaho: 2 Arrested for Pointing Laser

http://www.greenlaser.cn/idaho-2-arr...ointing-laser/

and a bunch more.

Catching them is hard, prosecution easy.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

Judah writes:

What altitude where you at?

I would bet that a kid with a handheld laser pointer might be very difficult
to catch and prosecute, and I bet even a handheld laser pointer will create a
flash in your eye at 2000 feet, even if the beam has diffused enough that the
"operator" won't be able to tell for sure where it's hitting your plane...

If you're lucky, you will only see the diffused portion of the light, and not
the beam itself, which may damage your vision. It sounds like the OP saw only
the periphery, not the beam itself (which, as you indicate, would be extremely
difficult to aim with precision from the ground, unless the culprit also had
some sort of telescopic sight and a way to hold the laser steady). The beam
of a good quality laser (highly collimated, that is) will hardly spread out at
all over a distance of a few thousand feet and thus may still be only a
millimetre or two in diameter.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Judah writes:

What altitude where you at?

I would bet that a kid with a handheld laser pointer might be very
difficult to catch and prosecute, and I bet even a handheld laser
pointer will create a flash in your eye at 2000 feet, even if the
beam has diffused enough that the "operator" won't be able to tell
for sure where it's hitting your plane...

If you're lucky, you will only see the diffused portion of the light,
and not the beam itself, which may damage your vision. It sounds like
the OP saw only the periphery, not the beam itself (which, as you
indicate, would be extremely difficult to aim with precision from the
ground, unless the culprit also had some sort of telescopic sight and
a way to hold the laser steady). The beam of a good quality laser
(highly collimated, that is) will hardly spread out at all over a
distance of a few thousand feet and thus may still be only a
millimetre or two in diameter.


So, you going to put a laser pointer on the edge of your monitor now?


Bertie

On Nov 13, 3:42 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
The beam
of a good quality laser (highly collimated, that is) will hardly spread out at
all over a distance of a few thousand feet and thus may still be only a
millimetre or two in diameter.

Complete ********. Just buy a laser pointer and measure the spot size
after 50'. It's already cm wide. The cavity of laser diode is just
too short to produce such high degree of collimation...

Cheers

"WingFlaps" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Nov 13, 3:42 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
The beam
of a good quality laser (highly collimated, that is) will hardly spread
out at
all over a distance of a few thousand feet and thus may still be only a
millimetre or two in diameter.

Complete ********. Just buy a laser pointer and measure the spot size
after 50'. It's already cm wide. The cavity of laser diode is just
too short to produce such high degree of collimation...

Garden-variety laser pointers aren't the same as the newer high-powered
green lasers, though, are they? (For example:
http://www.greenlaserbeam.com/ )

-c
not a physicist.

Gatt writes:

Garden-variety laser pointers aren't the same as the newer high-powered
green lasers, though, are they? (For example:
http://www.greenlaserbeam.com/ )

No, they are not. They are still not the most collimated beams around, but
they are collimated enough to cover just about the area of a person's face at
a few thousand feet.

The total energy delivered to the eye in this case would be in the range of
microwatts at several thousand feet, and it would be virtually impossible to
accurately aim a handheld pointer at this range. So it would be more of a
nuisance to vision than a damage hazard.

Unfortunately, there are still more powerful lasers available. Most people
dramatically underestimate the hazards of laser light. I'd be nervous about
those green pointers just out of concern for my own vision. All you have to
do is accidentally aim it at a reflective surface, and next thing you know you
have a retinal burn.