NSW Govt has banned laser pointers TODAY.

[tornado33]

I cannot see police busting down observatory doors and siezing telescope collimators, so why worry, go on collimating our scopes. I think the police have better things to do with their time than conduct raids on amateur observatories and astro society viewing nights. As for using laser pointers for pointing things in the sky, again, as the beam cannot be seen from a long distance to the side of the beam, as long as it is aimed skywards and never near aircraft, there shouldnt be a problem.

If society becomes a place where police picket observing grounds looking for "prohibited weapons" Id rather go to jail in protest. No way Id want a part of a society like that. As far as Im concerned the state can then clothe and feed me for the rest of my life.

[smenkhare]

Originally Posted by OneOfOne

I had a 1.2kW peak CO2 at Telstra We even used it for "official" work sometimes...don't know how that happened though!

I'm at telstra and we don't get those cool toys. What department were you in?


What is their definition of a laser "pointer" I've got a couple of gas lasers that i would exactly be happy having to give up.

[Harb]

Unfortunately what just about everyone here is missing is making them illegal won't do a thing.
Its near impossible to catch them now, so that wont change.
The people that point these things at planes don't give a rats about laws, so the only people this will inconvenience is the legit users, such as us.
I think it would be better to have a simple license system such as any other prohibited device and then just apply the full force of the law to the law breakers if they ever get caught.
Laser grades should all be available to those that want to have one.
I have many items here that are capable of mass murder. in fact I drive one of them every day, yet I don't run people down in the street.....
I can see like the gun issue, the only people that will have high power lasers are the people that point them at planes.......I bet now that it is illegal, there will be more attacks than ever before, the challenge that makes these idiots blood pump has been set.

[tornado33]

I wonder what response Id get if I applied for a permit to own this type of laser?
2.4x10 to power of32 watts

[Cerberus]

Originally Posted by Harb

Unfortunately what just about everyone here is missing is making them illegal won't do a thing.
Its near impossible to catch them now, so that wont change.
The people that point these things at planes don't give a rats about laws, so the only people this will inconvenience is the legit users, such as us.
I think it would be better to have a simple license system such as any other prohibited device and then just apply the full force of the law to the law breakers if they ever get caught.
Laser grades should all be available to those that want to have one.
I have many items here that are capable of mass murder. in fact I drive one of them every day, yet I don't run people down in the street.....
I can see like the gun issue, the only people that will have high power lasers are the people that point them at planes.......I bet now that it is illegal, there will be more attacks than ever before, the challenge that makes these idiots blood pump has been set.

point taken about the car also being a weapon, but Iemma and his cronies seem to believe a 10 year old kid with a cheap $30 green laser pointer is somehow capable of bringing down a passenger airplane and killing hundreds of passengers and people on the ground, whereas with a car you can only kill or injure a few people, not hundreds!
until the law makers get that crap out of their head this won't go away, and it also helps explain why these laws were drawn up so quickly, apart from the increasing incidents of laser flashings but thats more a 'monkey see monkey do' issue. I strongly believe that if the media did not report the first 'laser attack' the next incident would have probably been long off, considering these are just kids looking for instant attention and gratification so they can brag to their friends.
The other aspect is the idea or pre-conceived notion of the definition of a laser to the average person, I don't know if someone already said this but the average person off the street probably thinks a laser is a weapon of death as seen in movies like star wars and james bond, like a wrist watch thats capable of cutting through 2 inch thick steel like butter, so when you ask someone who is spoon fed sensational crap off the idiot box(tv) they will agree with the official line

[Ric]

I was checking my wifes laser last night and guess what it's technically illegal under these laws.

My wife is a Chef and uses a laser thermometer to ensure the correct temp of food being produced. It is safer than a probe as the risk of cross contamination is eliminated. This laser is handheld and is shaped like a gun and even comes with a holster.

Under these laws of stupidity my wife will now either have to get a licence for it and keep it locked in a gun cabinet or such like or get rid of it and run a risk of contaminating food with probes however slight which carries a fine of $100,000 per person under HACCP regulations.

I wont repeat what she said when I told her last night but you can guess.

Just another example of how this law has been well thought out.

Cheers

[tornado33]

This must be a nightmarish site for the Australian Government.



Note this post

~35W (yes Watt) green DPSS laser!
Apr 22nd, 2008, 11:13pm Hello all! This is my first post here, but I'd like to start off with a project that me and two friends are going to be attempting in the next month or so. While cruising around on Ebay for awhile one night, we found a 100W 803nm diode for sale for about 300 dollars. On top of that we also bought a Nd:YAG+KTP glued crystal for roughly 70$. So we'll be mounting the diode in a massive TEC cooled heatsink (250 watt TEC cooler) with a seperate water block and cooling system, then collimating the output on the gigantic diode to the crystal, then from the crystal to another lens to collimate it even further! The crystal has about a 38.6% efficiency rate and the diode is rated at 109.51 watts top. We also won't be running it at 100% capacity, but bumping it down to about 85% which will yield right around 35 to 36 watts of green awesome!!!

Wow, 35 watts of laser light!


Lasers were raised at our Newcastle Astronomical Society meeting last night, but since theres no written legslation or permit system, nothing much could be done.
Scott

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by smenkhare

I'm at telstra and we don't get those cool toys. What department were you in?

I used to be in the Research Labs for 25 years (I was but a baby when I started). This little sucker could cut through 3mm steel like it was butter. I wrote a program (before the IBM PC was around) that allowed you to draw something on a graphis tablet and then send it to the laser controller (our perspex maps of Australia with Queensland missing were very popular )

[smenkhare]

Originally Posted by OneOfOne

I used to be in the Research Labs for 25 years (I was but a baby when I started). This little sucker could cut through 3mm steel like it was butter. I wrote a program (before the IBM PC was around) that allowed you to draw something on a graphis tablet and then send it to the laser controller (our perspex maps of Australia with Queensland missing were very popular )

Transfer time

and 35W for a dpss laser? no way that's going to be very portable, and for the price you could a nice gas laser.

[ngcles]

Hi All,

There are many others affected beside us -- see article in 26 April's SMH:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...743248991.html

And looks like they are fighting as well.

Best,

Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T

[Ingo]

Originally Posted by smenkhare

Transfer time

and 35W for a dpss laser? no way that's going to be very portable, and for the price you could a nice gas laser.

You'd have a pretty big diode, but they go for pretty cheap. No way you'd get that to turn any other color than infrared, the crystals would melt!

Anyways, everybody here just get a 5mW 532nm laser and use it for astronomy if you need it, it's not bright enough to see other than directly behind. If you need a collimating laser, anything 1mW or under should be fine for that task.

I've had 280mW 532nm lasers pointed in the sky for at least 20 minutes and I live less than 2 miles from a major airport.

[mbaddah (Mo)]

As I was still confused regarding the ban on laser pointers, I decided to call the Police Assistance Line and ask them (http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/ ph: 131444)

After stating that I am an amateur astronomer and whether its permissable for me to use my green laser pointer at night (with proper care ofcourse), the lady on the phone couldn't answer my question and said she wasn't sure, so she forwarded my call to the local police station.

Again I stated my position, and whether from today onwards it was illegal or not to use my green laser pointer.The police officer said she doesn't know herself as they have not received any official warning, email, letters etc...

I told her fine then i shall continue to use it (appropriately) until you tell me to stop

Maybe you guys can call up your local police station and see whether you get same response or not? I'm going to continue using mine, cheers

[Ian Robinson]

Originally Posted by Cerberus

point taken about the car also being a weapon, but Iemma and his cronies seem to believe a 10 year old kid with a cheap $30 green laser pointer is somehow capable of bringing down a passenger airplane and killing hundreds of passengers and people on the ground, whereas with a car you can only kill or injure a few people, not hundreds!
until the law makers get that crap out of their head this won't go away, and it also helps explain why these laws were drawn up so quickly, apart from the increasing incidents of laser flashings but thats more a 'monkey see monkey do' issue. I strongly believe that if the media did not report the first 'laser attack' the next incident would have probably been long off, considering these are just kids looking for instant attention and gratification so they can brag to their friends.
The other aspect is the idea or pre-conceived notion of the definition of a laser to the average person, I don't know if someone already said this but the average person off the street probably thinks a laser is a weapon of death as seen in movies like star wars and james bond, like a wrist watch thats capable of cutting through 2 inch thick steel like butter, so when you ask someone who is spoon fed sensational crap off the idiot box(tv) they will agree with the official line

You forget how devastating a car filled with high explosive can be .... car bombs have regularly killed outright dozens or hundreds of people in the middle east.

[Cerberus]

yes true, but the operative term here is "in the middle east", i was referring to an average backyard in sydney where this law will take effect, not downtown iraq

[smenkhare]

Originally Posted by ngcles

Hi All,

There are many others affected beside us -- see article in 26 April's SMH:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...743248991.html

And looks like they are fighting as well.

Best,

Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T

So only hand held ones are banned?

[Harb]

I honestly think that once the facts all come out, this will be dropped like a hot potato.....
Mr Krudds Knee jerk reaction is just a diversion from the real problems our people are suffering and he is just looking for a "look at me ! I saved the world" thing.......

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by ngcles

Hi All,

There are many others affected beside us -- see article in 26 April's SMH:

yep what about all the tradies that use lasers levels lol i see advertised in the bunnings catologue all the time

[QUOTE=Harb;320151..
Mr Krudds Knee jerk reaction is just a diversion from the real problems our people are suffering and he is just looking for a "look at me ! I saved the world" thing.......[/QUOTE]

oh dear, what an original cheap shot play on words/a name, and wrong pollie btw

[edwardsdj (Doug)]

Originally Posted by Harb

Mr Krudds Knee jerk reaction is just a diversion from the real problems our people are suffering and he is just looking for a "look at me ! I saved the world" thing.......

This is a NSW state government issue.

I thought one of the best ideas floated at Rudd's 2020 talkfest was the abolition of the states.

If we could completely elliminate the most incomptent, wasteful and corrupt layer of government in this country, so many of our problems (including this one) would just go away.

Perhaps a lot more public momentum behind the notion of eliminting the states is the best long term solution to this problem area.

[stillwalkabout (Ken)]

I think a similar question was once asked of Stalin by Lady Astor
"Mr Stalin, when will you stop killing people?"
Stalin to Lady Astor "When it is no longer neccesary"
Makes me wonder what they are going to ban next
I will be ordering my pointer and mount tomorrow before Captain Bligh follow suit

[stillwalkabout (Ken)]

Is it OK if I plagarise the rainmakers quote?
I am still trying to come up with an explanation as to why when I set the alarm for 4-00 am for a GRS transit I have 80 percent cloud cover