How far can a 5 mW laser go?
The diagram below shows the hazard distances for a 5 milliwatt “U.S. legal” green laser pointer with a 1 milliradian beam divergence: It is a potential eye hazard from the pointer to about 52 feet. It is a temporary flashblindness hazard from the pointer, out to about 260 feet.
How far can a laser travel in atmosphere?
In total darkness we can see a <5mW 650nm laser around 500 – 1km away when it shines on a white surface. The divergence will make that projected dot 1km away a large dot that reach 20–30m in diameter, and very faint. Green YAG laser pointers at the same power, is in comperison visible up to 4–5km away.
Can a 5mW laser reach the moon?
The typical red laser pointer is about 5 milliwatts, and a good one has a tight enough beam to actually hit the Moon—though it’d be spread out over a large fraction of the surface when it got there. The atmosphere would distort the beam a bit, and absorb some of it, but most of the light would make it.
Is a 5mW laser legal?
And yes, lasers above 5 mW are commercially available in the United States, but it is illegal to market them as Class IIIa devices. Some units in the NIST study tested as high as 13 times over the legal limit at 66.5 mW.
How far can a 10mW green laser go?
Technical specifications
| Laser color | Green |
|---|---|
| Laser output | 10mW |
| Light Style | Beam light |
| Power Supply | 1 x CR2 Battery |
| Laser Range | <15 miles |
How far can a Class 2 laser go?
The Nominal Ocular Hazard Distance (NOHD) for the most powerful Class 2 laser (0.99 mW) with a tight beam (0.5 milliradian divergence) is 46 ft (14 m).
Can a laser beam reach Mars?
The laser beam, made of infrared light, was invisible to the human eye. But laser light will die out as it travels 55 million miles to Mars—only a few photons might actually reach a receiver on a rover.
How far can a 100mW laser go?
This is the world’s most powerful 100mW handheld laser you can legally own in hands. This high power 100mW green laser pointer emits the most brilliant and visible laser beam and light spot in atmosphere. You have totally control of the most visible beam of at least 2500 meters in darkness.
Can 5mW laser blind you?
They won’t burn you. They won’t cause permanent eye damage. Of course, in a real-world incident, laser light entering the eye would likely last for less than one second, as people naturally look away from bright things and close their eyes, so there is no real danger of direct damage.
How powerful is a 5MW laser at the top of the atmosphere?
That information is in the figure below: at 500nm (green) the sun has an irradiance of ~2W/m^2/nm; on earth it has an irradiance of ~1.25W/m^2.nm. This gives a ratio of 0.675. Thus, a 5mW laser would be reduced to a power of 3.375mW at the top of the atmosphere.
How far can a laser beam travel?
Unless there are a lot of fog in the atmosphere which can refract the beam, laser usually travel very far since the beam is formed by parallel streams of lights, unlike other light source which are more scatter. Basically, the more scattered the light is, the shorter the distant.
What is the difference between a 5MW and a 500MW laser?
Going from a 5 mW to a 500 mW laser is a 100 times power increase — but the hazard distances only become 10 times as long. (The square root of 100 is 10.)
How does the power of a laser affect hazard distances?
If a laser’s power is increased, the hazard distances are longer by the square root of the power increase. Going from a 5 mW to a 500 mW laser is a 100 times power increase — but the hazard distances only become 10 times as long. (The square root of 100 is 10.) However, note that in general, the higher the laser power, the higher the divergence.