A Personal Comment About the "Green Laser Scare"

[drclay]

GREEN LASER POINTERS....do YOU use them?

There seems to be yet another move afoot to scare the American public into some type of subservant submission....this time via lasers being "fired" at aircraft cockpits while in flight.

Although I totally agree it is not prudent nor particularly brilliant to be pointing lasers at anything flying around in the sky other than celestial objects, it is the tip of the iceberg as to the kind of world that we are being forced to live in at this time.  One by one, we are limiting our few remaining freedoms when I read about a father who was temporarily arrested in New England for pointing out constellations to his young daughter with a laser pointer.

Freedom....what a cost we pay; and it seems we will pay until there are no freedoms left.

Frankly, I am having a lot of difficulty in buying into this latest "elevated terror effort."

It is one thing to point a hand laser and by happenstance intersect it with a low flying aircraft.  It is an entirely DIFFERENT thing to dream than any terrorist organization could acquire, activate, and actually find the means to TRACK an aircraft flying at 300+ MPH long enough to hit a pilot in the EYES ..... that is exactly what is being reported.

When state troopers are starting to confiscate personal laser pointing devices from folks at star parties, we are finally giving into Big Brother in my opinion.  When are we going to say "enough is enough?"  

Nearly every holiday has seen an "ELEVATED" terror alert posted repeatedly on television, along with "White House Warnings" about leaks they have received about some dark move afoot to cause harm to those about us.....we are convinced that the folks making the announcements have our best interests at heart and are in fact protecting us from such threats.

But what about the threat of domination and suppression from fear?  Is that not what we are now living under?  Since September 11, 2001, there has not been one major attack on US soil that can be traced to any organized effort whatsoever.

It seems so odd to me that, after the horrible devastation and death caused by the Indian Ocean Tsunamis pulled our attention away from the Iraq war fiasco, that suddenly this "new threat" emerged to remind us that there are more important things than hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by natural distasters.

In the meantime, I advise each and every astronomy educator, amateur astronomer at any star party, or any innocent father attempting to show the stars to his starry-eyed daughter to refrain from using the lasers.  

To do so at this time appears to be unpatriotic and something that is soon to be taken away from us permanently.

We would never have dreamed that such freedoms would be gone and vanishing only 5 years ago.....imagine what little will be left in 2010.

[dsnay]

Dr. Clay,

I was right there with you until you got to the part where you suggested that continuing to use green lasers is unpatriotic. Wouldn't refraining from using them be playing right into the hands of big brother? It seems to me that we should all be getting 2 or 3 and using them every night. They can't possibly arrest us all.

Dave

[drclay]

Hello there Dave...
Actually you and I are in total agreement...I am not asking for refraining from use for patriotism's sake.....I am saying that you are likely to be arrested at this time if you DO use them.

I know of one individual in Texas just this weekend who was sought down in the dark skies of his star party site by the local sheriff who showed up with deputies, hands on guns.  Had one of the deputies not KNOWN this individual and known he frequented the dark sky site for astronomy, who knows what would have happened.

My words were to protect our friends and valued contributors....not to encourage giving up yet more rights.  Who knows when we will no longer have a choice to do so; at least today we CAN choose and I urge all astronomers to be prudent in their choice.

What a horrible, horrible shame to even have to discuss such things.

[dsnay]

Dr. Clay,

I'm glad to hear we agree. I thought maybe you'd gone off the deep end for a minute there.

What an shameful story. I can't believe the authorities are gullible enough to believe that we can actually reach those planes with our lasers. My understanding is that some of the "targets" were over 8000 feet high. I know my laser won't even come close to that. I think it might reach about 1/2 mile, but that's only on a very moist night and mine is a "special" one rated at 30 milliwatts as opposed to the typical 5-9 mw versions.

Anyway, best of health to you and your family.
Clear skies,
Dave

[H44]

I think a lot of this is a big "to do" over nothing.  I suspect it could be possible to project a laser into a pilots eye, but only for a VERY brief moment due to hand shake, movement of the craft, etc.  Even at that, it would be pure luck.  There is probably some activist group out there that is against the sale of lasers to the general public because they want us to believe they are dangerous.  Same group is probably responsible somehow for getting this junk started.  Got too many people out there that think they should protect us from every little thing.  I say, just leave me alone and I'll take my own chances.

[saburo76]

I believe in the latest incident with the guy using the laser pointer who blamed it on his daughter, then changed his statement after a lie detector test, the guy is facing charges of terrorism.

While this is going a bit far, if he actually were to cause damage to the eyes of a pilot flying a commercial aircraft over a populated area and god forbid it were to crash, I would have to say that he should be subject to the severest of penalties.

Once again we all lose due to the irresponsible actions of a few who would do others harm, the same way we have gradually lost personal freedoms since the heinous acts of 911.

[rkbrook]

I gotta chime in on this one. First of all a laser is a tool. I don't know, and can't imagine what, astronomers would use laser pointers for. But anyone that caused a detection of a laser by a pilot must have been intentionally pointing at and tracking the airliner, and that's an inappropriate use of the tool. I was driving home from work a couple of years ago in the winter when it was dark and a red laser beam played over my dashboard and was very scared until I realized that it was a kid in the passenger seat of the SUV next to me. Since when does this stupic kid have the right to distract my attention from driving and possibly cause an accident?

[H44]

I agree with both Robert and Ray.  Some people just don't use their brain too well.  Anyone that does this for kicks needs something done with them.  I do think this is one of those things that the media should not really keep pounding on however.  It just gives the nuts out there more ideas since a laser light is easy to buy these days.

There is no reason someone could not park in front of your house at night and shine their lasers at aircraft, next thing you know the feds will be knocking on your door!  Now that the idiots know the lasers can be tracked to their origin, the prank will not only be on the pilots, but also some unsuspecting person who may or may not be able to prove they didn't do it.  What happens then?  Its really hard to believe that there are people out there that could do such a thing for fun!  

I would be really hesitant to use one to point out things in the sky now.

[mfortsm]

Will the small hand held devices red or green actually reach to an aircraft at 30 to 40k ft?.   Where were these aircraft when they got shined on?  Sounds like a bit of a witchhunt to me but I always was a little different in my thinking.   Mike    

I gotta add this.  If I am using my little hand held light to show some kids a sight in the sky and some cop puts me in the hooscawl, I'm going to tell them that the dude on the airplane shined me first!.  The more I think about this-----  BLA BLA BLA.  the more it doesn't make any sense at all.

     

[twilbur]

What a great post, thank you Dr. Clay! I use a green laser pointer to point out constellations to my 7 year old son, and my wife, and my friends... It's a fantastic teaching tool, the difference it has made to my child's knowledge of the night sky is immeasurable.  We use it on camping trips and in my backyard regularly.

We're now living in a state where constant fear mongering is used as a tool to erode and eliminate the personal freedoms our forefathers worked so hard to establish and preserve. I can only hope that cooler heads and some common sense will eventually prevail. Of course, hope is not an effective strategy...

[drclay]

The "scare" is indeed a pity and a demonstration of how sad the state of affairs has become to maintain our freedoms.  So much of this is contrived in my opinion that it is a bit frightening.

I have a large group of science educators coming to the observatory on Saturday night and I certainly plan to point out Comet Machholz and several other celestial sights in our dark skies (if it ever clears....) with my new green laser pen that I received from Santa....they best not come and confiscate my Christmas present.

What concerns me is that I am hearing from "official bullying" towards amateur astronomers who are not violating any laws nor meaning any harm whatsoever, and this when clear explanations are offered and demonstrations given as to the effectiveness of the laser pointers in the night sky.

Hopefully if they DO show up here, they will bring the entire production crew and cameras from "COPS" so that I can at least publicly point out the idiocy in all of this.

To Mike Hollaway's point, I have tremendous difficulty believing that even some doofus who is intentionally attempting to "scope" a moving airplane at 300 MPH at an altitude of 1 mile can possibly lock onto and track such a target with a handheld laser pen, even if sober.

There is more to this fiasco than meets the eye (pun intended.....)

[W4WMM]

As a licensed pilot (with a red laser) I can say that I believe a flash from a red or green laser is no worse than a flash from a bolt of lightning.  It's causes a temporary loss of vision just like a flash on a camera.  The only difference is a pilot that's flying in conditions where he may be exposed to the light from a flash of lightning is aware it might happen and therefore forwarned to turn his instrument lights on bright so that he will be able to see them sooner after the flash dissipates.

I feel that if you could hold it steady and shine it straight at me I still think I would be able to fly/land safely.  I'm not saying I condone it, I am saying I feel it's all blown way out of proportion.

________________
Looking up,
Alan

[drclay]

Hello Alan and welcome!
Good to see you here.  I totally agree and thank you for this perspective on this issue....for now it seems to have just totally "gone away."  Hope it stays.

[wbehrens]

The thing I find so interesting here is the US Goverment has a laser tagging system that is radar guided in Washington DC. It is MEANT to shine in a pilots eyes to tell them to turn around as they are entering restricted air space. They have to "de-focus" the laser beam so that they are assured to hit the pilots eyes.

I think the green laser pointer scare is just another BS media hype. I am so sick of the media in this country....if there is nothing sensational to report they just seem to make it up. The media just says something or investigates something that riles' up  the liberals or angers the conservatives and they stand back all inocent and say they are just reporting.

Me I am going to continue to use my laser pointer.......