A low powered red laser seen here. Remember the laser-in-the-groin-shots in Bond’s Gold Finger? Careful Justin!
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The beam path seems a lot broader in the picture although has diverged from 0.1 inches (2 mm) to about 1/2 inch (12 mm) after 30 feet or so here and would be down to about 3% of its original intensity and theoretically safer than a 1 mW laser close up for the same pupil size. I’m wearing the safety goggles here as I’m on the receiving end.
Helium Neon lasers are low power and have long been superseded by diode lasers. They used to be common in supermarket checkouts to scan tags.
It is a Melles Griot tube class IIIa running off 12V 3 amps.
The beam path of about 10 feet was highlighted with a water spray in this exposure.
Shooting for the stars on a night with smoke in the air from controlled burning. The Helium Neon laser beam seems to stop abruptly perhaps a couple of hundred feet up where the inversion layer with the smoke ends. Green laser pointers are more often used for astronomical pointing.
A HeNe beam aimed at the moon, highlighted with a water spray with a long exposure. It was not retouched and was done on a night with a lot of smoke in the air. I sort of need a laser sight for my laser!
A low power moon shot and a high power one – Ooops, think its gone supernova. These shots were not retouched but the beam was highlighted with a water spray as the full moon (on lunar eclipse night) was a bit bright. The right one was smeared by my hand or the spray got on the lens (or other similar paranormal phenomena). The camera was under the beam to give the effect of a beam from above.
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Photo Date: 2004