Laser Pointers

[themos]

I've also used it to "communicate" to other telescope observers nearby where a particular target is so that they can point their scopes at it. The beam is only visible if you stand quite close to it.

[Freff]

Mine is the exact same size as the polar scope on the NEQ6. When I hold it against the PS it puts a beam towards Polaris for adjustment. Saves having to get on my knees.

Tony

[malc-c]

There are two areas of legality here. The first covers the sale of laser under the Health and safety act and what is deemed a safe wattage. The second is the offense of shining it in the vicinity of aircraft. The latter comes under the Air Navigation Order 2009, which states it is illegal for someone to “direct or shine any light at any aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot.” Those caught are charged under article 73 of the Air Navigation Order for recklessly endangering an aircraft - a penalty carrying a maximum five-year jail term.

There have been several cases of people prosecuted under this act, a BBC news report stated that "Liam Coe, 21, from Hollingworth in Greater Manchester, was jailed for four months for shining a beam at a police helicopter during observations." - Others appear to of been given suspended sentences.

Whilst these are the extreme, and (in the case of the prat pointing at a police air unit) are not the sort of thing sensible people do, it does highlight the powers the law has if you were found in possession of a laser pen at a time aircraft are in the sky, even if you are not actually shining the beam at or in the direction of the aircraft. The fact you have a scope next to you still may not be much of a defense. I guess if you live in the middle of nowhere you could be OK, but if there are any commercial aircraft in the area where you observe, then you can run the risk of being arrested if using a laser pen whilst observing.

[scapps42]

It may be worth checking if you are buying from one of these astro website shops that they work in all temperatures as i found out when i brought one and it turns out that it stops working when the temperature falls below 10c , i eventually binned it and brought one from the local joke shop and it works fine in all temperatures

[sixela]

That was from memory - this is from Wikipedia (not neccesarily correct but ...)

It is indeed not necessarily correct. I don't know the situation in the UK, but in Belgium class 3R lasers (up to 5mW) are perfectly legal to sell to anyone, provided the warning labels are clearly displayed. Possession isn't regulated; sale is. The class 3R limit is also the limit in the US.

A 5mW limit is a good thing, because lasers over 5mW (which some of us do use at public outreach for larger groups) are useless as finders and too bright for smaller groups.

[sixela]

It may be worth checking if you are buying from one of these astro website shops that they work in all temperatures as i found out when i brought one and it turns out that it stops working when the temperature falls below 10c ,

Either not well tuned potentiometer (the more expensive models have, if you're lucky, better autoregulating circuitry) or bad batteries - if you wat them to work in the cold, lithium batteries (e.g. Energizer Lithium for small cameras) are a lot better than alkalines.

[sixela]

The latter comes under the Air Navigation Order 2009, which states it is illegal for someone to “direct or shine any light at any aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot.”[...]it does highlight the powers the law has if you were found in possession of a laser pen at a time aircraft are in the sky, even if you are not actually shining the beam at or in the direction of the aircraft.

Does it? According to me, if you're not shining the beam, you are, well, not "directing or shining any light etc."

I don't want to hazard a guess as to the interpretation of the UK law, but the Belgian equivalent clearly also supposes there is intent at shining the light at an aircraft in flight for something to be an offense, and cases brought fall in two classes: persons foolish enough to shine at aircraft cockpits of landing aircrafts while close to the runway axis (so that the cockpit is a quasi-stationary target that you can illuminate repeatedly) and persons illuminating quasi stationary helicopters (again, not by accident, but repeatedly and interfering with the pilot). Polica helicopters in particular don't find this sort of thing funny when they're trying to track a suspect and might well suppose you're an accomplice.

There are also no-laser zones surrounding (active) airfields in Belgium regulations.

One of my observing sites is a military site (we have permission to use it for astronomy). It's not hard to refrain from using the green laser pointer when Agusta helicopters are hovering around looking at your 16" Dob with night vision goggles, I can tell you, and they'll spot you even if you don't use the laser pointer at all. Once they were even curious enough to land and have a look at the Veil nebula.