
This means when lasers are shone into the night sky, a green laser has a much lower chance of being dispersed by things in the air and allows the beam to travel a lot farther. It is much sharper and does not get dispersed as easily as red light. Go GreenĬomparatively, the green light is much easier for human eyes to detect. This is why darkened spaces are lit by red light in split shift situations.

It is extremely unobtrusive due to its proximity to the infrared spectrum which humans cannot see at all.

Green lasers are used for night sky purposes far more than other laser colors for a few reasons.įirst, red light is one of the hardest kinds of light for humans to see. Lasers can come in a variety of colors, red, blue, purple, orange and green. Red is the most common color for laser pointers, so why green? Mean Green Laser Machine A power source, a focusing mirror, and a laser diode are used to form the basis of most simple laser pointers to great effect.ĭespite the many options of color and brightness many astronomers and stargazers typically use a green laser pointer to point out objects at night. These are similar to other light diodes, like LEDs and produce light when electricity is applied to them directly. They come in various colors and power levels for different purposes.

They can be used to highlight something on a presentation screen from a couple of dozen feet away to the Orion constellation thousands of feet above the Earth. Lasers are just powerful beams of focused light that are used to highlight things from a great distance. The acronym is outdated but the name remained and remains today. The laser was an acronym: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. 5 Should I Still Get One? What’s In a Laser?Ĭontrary to pop culture portrayals lasers are not death rays or plasma cutters, they are just concentrated light.
