Green 10watt Laser in Milton Keynes

[Guest Chelsea Martyn]

I love lasers... I have 7 lasers that are used on the 'other' Company i'm involved in, and I think they are fab!

We have a green 10 watt laser (which in laser power is pretty powerful) being fired from the shopping centre in Milton Keynes every night to tell you where it is.

It's direction is mainly toward junction 14 of the M1...

It's clearlly visable and looks pretty cool until I saw it the other night coming home when it was foggy...

This is why I'm posting a thread, because if any of you happen to be anywhere near MK on a misty evening, then make the trip up and see it!

You know how night clubs, bands and d.j's use smoke machines to make the light beams more visable, well the same applies here with the mist.

To see time tunnels flat beams and circular spikes spanning accross some 10 miles in the air is well worth it.

There's one round-a-bout where it looks like someone got fixated on it and drove through the railings! LOL

[Guest teigan]

could you place it on a multiaxis mount and draw programmed patterns? you'd need a sufficiently heavy isolated shockmount to eliminate unwanted jiggle. an array of lasers pulsed in harmony might be better. how many have you got?

[Guest Chelsea Martyn]

Hi mate

We have 7 lasers in 'out of control' that's the Company name... 4X 500mw green, 1X 500mw Blue and 2X 800mw red

They are run by DMX program from a pc based platform.

I don't know who is responsible for this one in MK from the shopping centre though....

I just know we have it there and its pretty awesome, especially when it's misty!

BTW... out of control are getting 4x 5watt multi coloured laser heads in April next year.....

Now that will be amazing!!!!!!

[Guest Chelsea Martyn]

could you place it on a multiaxis mount and draw programmed patterns?  you'd need a sufficiently heavy isolated shockmount to eliminate unwanted jiggle.  an array of lasers pulsed in harmony might be better.  how many have you got?

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To answer your question properly mate

Yes our's are motorised and you can make them do anything as regards patterns animation etc... in any direction

The nm frequency also means that they can be used for audience scanning when producing flat beams either H or V..

There seems to be a lot of restrictions in America on how powerful lasers can be?

[Guest teigan]

i built a small laser listening device to spy on conversations behind glass, but it didn't work at distances more than across the street. even then, a person or animal walking nearby would jiggle the laser enough to scramble the transmission. seems we all have misconceptions about lasers thanks to george lucas and his minions. the laser shows in nightclubs are repetetive and annoying. better were the pink floyd shows with fully choreographed lasers. and so we asked ourselves, "where's the band"?

[danielsonson]

I used to run events for a company called MEM and we used to use LCI lasers these guys are the ones who supplied lasers to the olympics,millenium sydney,china and japan you name it.

When they turned up with their laser hologram thingy it came in the form of 3 control centers and 4 generators each the size of a shipping container! now thats BIG.

Dunno much but I do know I would rather watch lasers than smelly disappointing fire works, why couldnt guy forks have been a mate of the clingons maybe he would have used a photon bomb instead of gunpowder then my wish would come true!

im gonnna shut up now!

[Guest Chelsea Martyn]

i built a small laser listening device to spy on conversations behind glass, but it didn't work at distances more than across the street.  even then, a person or animal walking nearby would  jiggle the laser enough to scramble the transmission.  seems we all have misconceptions about lasers thanks to george lucas and his minions.  the laser shows in nightclubs are repetetive and annoying.  better were the pink floyd shows with fully choreographed lasers.  and so we asked ourselves, "where's the band"?

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We had a gig over here called 'Live 8' and it was the first time that Roger Waters was back with the trio... even then you could still see the 'distance' from Dave and Nick etc..

It was as if they felt obliged to do it due to it being a benefit gig

I suppose it was all from the legal battles from the past when they all went legal over the name and who could use it..

BTW... are you listening to me now?

[Guest Chelsea Martyn]

I used to run events for a company called MEM and we used to use LCI lasers these guys are the ones who supplied lasers to the olympics,millenium sydney,china and japan you name it.

When they turned up with their laser hologram thingy it came in the form of 3 control centers and 4 generators each the size of a shipping container! now thats BIG.

Dunno much but I do know I would rather watch lasers than smelly disappointing fire works, why couldnt guy forks have been a mate of the clingons maybe he would have used a photon bomb instead of gunpowder then my wish would come true!

im gonnna shut up now!

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Bravo!

Lasers rule!

[Guest teigan]

i watched a lot of live8. pinkfloyd definitely weren't at their best. at least they managed to hold onto their marbles unlike geldof. it was entertaining to see what deranged fat bastard sellouts U2 have become. i love being proven right about who the real villains are.

[EspritMiltonKeynes]

Yeah it's a funny thing these green lasers...

The one in Milton Keynes has been there quite a while but I remember about a year ago when there was also one in London, coming out of the Millennium dome I think..

They do kind of force you to stop what you're doing for a minute and just go 'whoah!'

[esprit350]

I also used to work for a laser hire company in the 90's based in Birmingham called Laser Hire, they may be responsible for your argon laser in MK its the sort of thing they do, When I was there they had 5 4 watt argon water cooled a 4 watt purelight (white beam, well very pale green) which when used with dichroic fiters could be multi coloured. 2 20 watt argon and a 5 watt krypton (red) also a few 2 watt air cooled lasers, control systems in those days were Laser Systems magnum and a prototype oraclel system.

We often did carluaches and laser fireworks concerts with orchestras etc also Wallsall Illuminations and a big peace and reconcilation show in Coventry on the 50th aniversary of the bombing.

Howard

[Paul C]

Just imagine...

Three wise men see this light and head for Milton Keynes by mistake.

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

There is indeed one in Greenwich. A Green one they have been doing since the millenium

Bibs and I had no idea about it whatsoever and he spotted it the other night...

We spent HOURS driving around looking for the source (The Royal Obsrvatory in Greenwich Park)

[USAndretti42]

I also used to work for a laser hire company in the 90's based in Birmingham called Laser Hire, they may be responsible for your argon laser in MK its the sort of thing they do, When I was there they had 5 4 watt argon water cooled a 4 watt purelight (white beam, well very pale green) which when used with dichroic fiters  could be multi coloured. 2 20 watt argon and a 5 watt krypton (red) also a few 2 watt air cooled lasers, control systems in those days were Laser Systems magnum and a prototype oraclel system. 

We often did carluaches and laser fireworks concerts with orchestras etc also Wallsall Illuminations and a big peace and reconcilation show in Coventry on the 50th aniversary of the bombing.

Howard

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How does a white laser work? I thought they were a very pure, highly-tuned frequency.

[oneshot]

OOh

Takes me back to when I was at university - the physics department did government work on lasers - 10MegaWatt ones

Admittedly they only operated for fractions of a second and weren't used for light displays.

[Guest teigan]

we had one in the basement of my college. it was on a 900 lb. granite table, vibration isolated from the ground on air cushions. wish i had the same at home. we sometimes used it for making holographic photos.

only laser i use daily is a parking guide for the garage. common as muck, but still a beautiful beam.

[esprit350]

How does a white laser work?  I thought they were a very pure, highly-tuned frequency.

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The white light laser I worked with ( bear in mind this is back in 1990) were mixed gas argon and others cant remember now, they were in reality a very pale green colour but when put through a dichoric filter you could get the colour spectrum, The reds and yellows were poor in comparison to the green and blues, The laser itself was built specially for entertainment use by a company called coherent who also made scientific lasers, we also used lasers by a company called spectra physics.

To get a 4 watt output from the laser you needed a 3 phase 32 amp supply and about 3 gallons a minute cold water flow for the cooling system. The laser tube was in a glass water jacket bit scary when you think aboput the 30000 volts needed to get the plasma to lase.

I think the hire and entertaimnet industry has moved on a bit since I was involved and you can now get a lot of light output for not much energy input, yag lasers are used now I think

Howard

[madmezza]

Has anyone ever used dye lasers? Always fascinated by the tuning idea, and never quite figured out how they worked! (dye lasers, that is - I'm a bit of a laser fanatic otherwise and have a few here - mainly diode and HeNe (red and green), only a few mW).

[Guest teigan]

the dye flouresces a different colour, depending on the light source used to excite it. the optical element also must be retuned before changing colours, usually by shifting a diffraction grating. they make it sound magic, but it's just sleight of hand.

[madmezza]

the dye flouresces a different colour, depending on the light source used to excite it.  the optical element also must be retuned before changing colours, usually by shifting a diffraction grating.  they make it sound magic, but it's just sleight of hand.

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Cheers Teigan - that makes sense now. Is the dye chamber set up like a laser itself (i.e. total/partial mirrors), but excited by the other laser?

[Guest teigan]

yeah. and they can be pulsed or continuous. the pump source doesn't need to be a laser. xenon flashes or high voltage works fine.

i once saw a nanolaser made from a drop of water. electron microscope photos of it anyway. the picture didn't tell much. could have been the loch ness monster for all i knew.

[karluk29]

wow seriously clever buggers about lasers, all i know is, the one at the club i worked in and used to use was one of the first (if not the first) one in the uk to be used in a club,,,it was "technically" illegal to be used inside and was a full rainbow laser, never seen anything like it, neither had the public, the roof was full of water to cool the bloody thing, also had 3 more normal green ones. lasers are just awesome.

[esprit350]

wow seriously clever buggers about lasers, all i know is, the one at the club i worked in and used to use was one of the first (if not the first) one in the uk to be used in a club,,,it was "technically" illegal to be used inside and was a full rainbow laser, never seen anything like it, neither had the public, the roof was full of water to cool the bloody thing, also had 3 more normal green ones. lasers are just awesome.

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A few years ago the "illegallity" of use was down to the local health and saftey or enviromental officer. More often than not they did not have a clue about Lasers and were only ther to satisfy local rules etc. However we did have a show shut down at York Uni once, laser was set up in a gym I think ( I wasnt at this gig) and had some high level windows without curtains. Health and safety bloke said without those windows covered you could shoot down an aircraft with a spurious beam! He shut the laser show down.

Howard

[hovgaard]

Health and safety bloke said without those windows covered you could shoot down an aircraft with a spurious beam! He shut the laser show down.

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[esprit350]

laugh about it now, but then the company lost a lot of money that night