On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 03:28:38 -0000, miso@sushi.com wrote:

http://www.lazygranch.com/stonewall_mountain.htm

lots of laser beams to be seen if you want.   best ( at first ) 
to look for them at night.  plenty - most  are powerful enough to be
seen in the daytime too.   99.9%  are not visible to humans.

to make yourself an inexpensive viewer ,  use one of these tubes

http://cgi.ebay.com/Night-Vision-Active-Infrared-IR-Image-Tube-ITT-8598_W0QQitemZ280130579642QQihZ018QQcategoryZ4084QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

and add a cheap AA powered ps, a  standard 50 to 90mm  ( bigger
diameter glass  works  better  )   to the front of the tube , add a
cheapo   25m ( or 10mm for higher mag )  telescope eyepiece to the
back and you have one " killer "  laser beam spotter. 

many - most night vision devices and  especially the inexpensive
russian ones do very poorly or don't work at all for many - most
invisible  tactical laser beams ( not speaking of the ones specially
made for ground troops to use at night , specially made to work with
their night vision goggles )    targeting , and range finding lasers
work   at   1100  ( much higher, 1350mn  and up ,  usually )   mn
...... the above device is broadband ( so to speak )  and works
excellent  above  1100nm.  ( esp 1350 ) night vision devices are
usually blind    there (  at that  wavelength ).   

 
I  posted  two laser pictures in alt.ham-radio.binaries

one is what the beam of a  aircraft targeting laser  looks like
on a nearby  building at night.   smart  a$$ flyboys trying to burn
out my IR camera but missed and got the wrong building ! 
yaya ay ayya ya

the 2nd one  is ( was ) my own laser lab. the  frame thing on the
on the floor is my pride and joy  water cooled 30  joule pulse yag
laser . 
I could make it burn a hole in a aluminum garage door 60  feet 
away.  it would shoot a 3' shower of sparks , firing  at a razor
blade , every time it fired  ( once about every   7  seconds ).
and it made tiny holes in the blade every time it hit it !

if you happen to recognize the flag on the pole in the background ,
please don't mention what it is here .  thanks, I appreciate it.