Minimum power to be visible in daylight

[cyberindie]

I'm planning on buying a Laserglow laser - either an Aries or Hercules.

What would be the min power for a reasonably visible beam in daylight?

Thanks

Paul

 

[kdam36]

inside or outside??
i`v got a 150mw greenie and u can see the beam indoors with the indoor dust but you can bareley see it oudoors

 

[cyberindie]

I meant to say outside. Sounds like a very powerful laser would be needed to see the beam in daylight outdoors.

 

[comozo]

For that to be feasible your looking a tens of watts of output far beyond anything battery operated.

 

[bootleg2go]

I'm planning on buying a Laserglow laser - either an Aries or Hercules.

What would be the min power for a reasonably visible beam in daylight?

Thanks

Paul

Hi cyberindie,

The visibility for either indoors or outdoors is more dependent on the amount of particles floating in the air than the output power of the laser, so it's not an easy question to answer.

You see, the beam your seeing is actually light that is no longer on it's straight and narrow course, it's the light that has hit something in the air and is reflecting in your direction. For instance a billion watt laser if fired from the space shuttle at night while in orbit and aimed out to deep space would not even be visible at all, since there is nothing for the light to reflect off of. This goes the same if you were in clean room for electronic manufacturing, except even though the air is very clean there are still a few particles floating around so you would see little twinkles of like every once in awhile when the beam hit one. Of course you will always see the spot the laser produces at it's termination point.

So indoors or outdoors on a very polluted or foggy day, it won't take much to be visible; 5mW could even do it if it's not really bright out.

Humidity has a lot to do with it as well.
For instance out in New Mexico where the air is very clean and dry, a 300mW is just visible indoors on with average lighting.

Jack