Blue Laser

[timo_w2s]

Last year to celebrate 135 years of electric light in Helsinki they decided to blast a high power laser from an observatory at a church on the other side of town. This year they've done it again so last night I took some photos...

 

[Lazarus]

Any Aircraft incidents?

 

[PaulR]

That's impressive. The beam seems to spread out rather quickly though - is that because of the air quality perhaps? Does it retain coherance better on clearer nights?

 

[timo_w2s]

Any Aircraft incidents?

A bit deceptive in the photos but it's only just above the buildings aimed horizontally across town, anything flying that low has got other problems to worry about...

That's impressive. The beam seems to spread out rather quickly though - is that because of the air quality perhaps? Does it retain coherance better on clearer nights?

I've only seen it a few times, but when I took those photos it was getting a bit misty/damp as it was a fairly still evening and we've had quite a bit of rain. I think the laser is going through a lens to widen it, at least when it hits its destination (the church) it's a fairly well defined rectangle. I'm planning to go back to take more photos later in the week so I'll see if I can get a photo of the "target" too.

 

[timo_w2s]

I went to see the destination of the laser last night (Kallio church) and took a few more pics. It looked more rectangular from a distance but close up the laser is pretty round. Although it's not very easy to tell from the photos the laser is pretty horizontal, going from one hill to another across town.

 

[2cvbloke]

I'm betting someone said "Fire phasers!!" just before they switched on that beam...

I'm guessing they didn't have the beam fully focussed as a beam of that strength could probably do some damage, after all, you can buy laser pens of that wavelength that pop balloons and burn holes in things, so imagine what they could do with that one (could remotely light a bonfire, thinking about it!!)...

 

[timo_w2s]

I dropped my sister off in town tonight and I had my camera with me so I thought I'd go look at the source of the laser - the Helsinki Observatory. It was quite misty so the laser showed up even better although it didn't travel as far this time so just as well I was close to it tonight.