The reason is simple: the human eye is much more sensitive to green light than it is to red light.Įxcept on nights of exceptional clarity and near-zero humidity, if you shine a green laser pointer into the sky, you can follow the beam hundreds of meters up. At a given power setting, such lasers appear much brighter than the more common diode lasers that produce a red beam at wavelengths longer than 630 nm. The pointers favored by stargazers use a neodymium diode laser and emit a green beam at a wavelength of 532 nanometers. [caption id="attachment_255442549" align="alignright He faced a possible 20-year jail term but ultimately was sentenced to two years of probation. He'd been arrested the preceding week after allegedly shining a green laser at a private jet on approach to a nearby airport and then at a police helicopter dispatched to search for the culprit.Īccording to the criminal complaint, after first blaming his 7-year-old daughter, the suspect admitted that he had been giving her a guided tour of the night sky. In the most notorious case, on January 4, 2005, New Jersey stargazer David Banach was charged with interfering with the operation of a passenger aircraft and lying to federal investigators. federal and state authorities following thousands of incidents in which laser beams have "painted" aircraft in flight. Humble laser pointers, used by thousands of skygazers to show beginners the way to stars and constellations, is coming under fire from U.S. It emits an intense, narrow beam of light that is visible for hundreds or even thousands of meters at night, depending on sky conditions.Ī recent addition to the backyard astronomer's toolkit has been flagged as a potential weapon in the terrorist's arsenal. This is a typical amateur-astronomer's green laser pointer, shown with a simulated beam.
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