Pix of me with green laser?

[The Bad Astronomer]

Folks, I'm looking to write up some stuff about green laser pointers, and I was wondering if anyone took any good pictures of the one I used on the Galapagos trip. I don't have any, and a search of Flickr came up empty.

If you have any, please let me know: thebadastronomer "at" gmail "dot" com

Thanks!

 

[BillC]

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=92&pictureid=388

That's him!

 

[PhantomWolf]

Not one from your Galapagos trip, but I did locate this one from your Nashal trip...

 

[Kell]

An elegant lecture aid, for a more civilized age.

 

[phyz]

Folks, I'm looking to write up some stuff about green laser pointers, and I was wondering if anyone took any good pictures of the one I used on the Galapagos trip. I don't have any, and a search of Flickr came up empty.

If you have any, please let me know: thebadastronomer "at" gmail "dot" com

Thanks!

Sorry mon ami,
I love a photographic challenge more than the next guy, but snapping you with green laser in operation would be a truly impressive feat.

1. You are in the dark. Very dark. Cameras don't dig the dark so much. Think high ISO, pushed to the max with EV (exposure compensation) so as to make a sub-1 second exposure even possible. And autofocus will fail without some type of assist.

2. The green laser looks brighter to our eyes than it does to the camera. We're "blessed" with impressive dynamic range in our optical sensitivity. Cameras, not so much. That's actually the next frontier of digital camera sensor development now that the megapixel race has played out.

3. Long (1-secondish) handheld exposures of a moving Bad Astronomer on a moving ocean-going vessel... The physics is formidable.

Again, I'll be impressed if someone has one. My suggestion is to not interrupt your regularly-scheduled breathing pattern.

 

[The Bad Astronomer]

I remember several people taking pictures of the beam at various points. I don't care if I'm blurred; I'm hoping to see the light saber effect.

 

[Boo]

I don't have one of you with the laser but I have one of the laser pointed at the water. I'll forward it on to you.



Boo

 

[technoextreme]

I remember several people taking pictures of the beam at various points. I don't care if I'm blurred; I'm hoping to see the light saber effect.

The only interesting thing I know about green laser beams (Or is it red) is with something my optics professor called the hickey machine. Apparently you can see the blood vessels with one and not with the other due to the absorption of the light.

 

[Hindmost]

I didn't think to take pictures...I just took one of my green laser at home. I may have to replace it now, I have laser envy since Phil's is way more powerful than mine.

glenn

 

[Dicon]

This is the closest match I could find.

 

[Chebutykin]

I tried my damndest to get a photo of you using the laser one night, but it just didn't work. The camera just wouldn't stay steady enough on the rocking boat. Plus, even with the deck lights turned off, there was enough ambient light around that the blurry images of you and the people around you were washing out the frame before the laser was picked up by the camera sensor.

It doesn't help that I have a Sony A100, which isn't the best camera in low light anyway.

Sorry! I tried! I really did!

 

[The Bad Astronomer]

Yeah, I figured there wouldn't be much hope for this. Boo's picture should work though, and I'll set something up here at night to see if I can do it myself. Thanks everyone!

 

[scotth]

If you have any plans to be in North Texas in the not too distant future......

 

[Chebutykin]

If you have any plans to be in North Texas in the not too distant future......

Likewise for Minnesota!

 

[phyz]

Last time I tried some green laser grooviness in my classroom, I'm employed the services of a product called Fog in a Can / Professional Haze. Sold mostly to photographers. I'd been doing this demo for years. Unfortunately, the sensitivity of the smoke detectors in my room had been clandestinely cranked up over the summer. So the whole school enjoyed a fire drill.

Then I "invented" The Laser Viewing Tank, so's not to burn the school down.

My own groovy pics of how to use it.

 

[Wowbagger]

Sorry, Phil. I tried to take several photos, but none of them came out, and I tried several different settings, even the special "night portrait" mode, etc.

I did not have the foresight to bring a specialized night-time cameras with me.

The "best" photo I have is the green laser hitting the wake, when you aimed it at that, but all you see is a green blob, with a very faint line sorta coming from it. It's not terribly interesting.


ETA: The video camera is even worse. Just total darkness is all it ever got, at night. Well, perhaps also the moon.

 

[leon_heller]

An idiot who shone one at a helicopter got sent to prison recently, here in the UK.

Leon

 

[Geek Goddess]

If you have any plans to be in North Texas in the not too distant future......

Or Houston, since I have an offer from someone to pay his way here if he would talk at the Houston Skeptic group....

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Why don't you just go out and take a new image on the next clear night?