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Hi From Wet and Grey Washington

MEDDER

MEDDER

New member
Joined
Dec 20, 2018
Messages
28
Points
3
I'll start off with sorry for this being my second post, I just discovered this section.

I'm 22 y/o and been really into lasers on the internet for 8-10 years or so but never got around to getting myself any for some reason.
I'm really into science/physics, my #1 life passion is astronomy (imaging, not so much visual). Lucky lasers tie into it quite well, from using one to point out a planet all the way up to the 20+ watt sodium lasers used for active optics on the big boy telescopes. Electronics is my pastime, I'm not the best at designing anything past relatively basic circuits but I really enjoy fixing stuff I break and modifying the ones I dont.

Just got into using forums in the last few months. Not sure if this one suffers from it, but the astronomy ones are full of opinions and therefore bickering which sorta drives me nuts and that's what has kept me away from them until recently.

No specific reason I like lasers, so "because science" will be my answer.
I would really like to start collecting as many wavelengths as my wallet allows, as many of you do. I am more interested in having super stable lasers than high power ones, but everyone has to have at least one outlier to their collection right? My goal right now (other than building some basic RGBV pointers) is to build a "white" laser, then later on get a 589nm so I can toss it on my telescope for some fun pictures when I'm out at a dark sky site. And way down the line I would love setting up an argon laser but that's a bit passed my budget right now and I am not currently worthy of one.

So to finish it off here is my scope with a red 5mw on it photoshopped to be 589nm after some fog rolled in.

Happy lazing! Or as we say it on the astro forums, clear skies!

View attachment activeoptics.jpg
 
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Welcome to the LPF. I, too, am in Washington. I am in Tacoma, on the north end of town, not far from Puget Sound. I can't think of a worse place to do astronomy as it is often overcast here. But, we do have some cloudless nights from time to time. I hope you are able to find everything you need to enjoy building or buying lasers. :cool:
 
Hi, Jeff. Long time, no see. Hope all is well with you. Merry Christmas and have a happy new year.
 
Hi Medder,
Welcome to LPF there's a multitude of info here in our search bar . Be safe always .

Rich:)
 
paul1598419 said:
Welcome to the LPF. I, too, am in Washington. I am in Tacoma, on the north end of town, not far from Puget Sound. I can't think of a worse place to do astronomy as it is often overcast here. But, we do have some cloudless nights from time to time. I hope you are able to find everything you need to enjoy building or buying lasers. :cool:
Click to expand...

I'm just north of you in Issaquah so we get fairly similar weather, and I would agree that its one of the worst places for astronomy.

Thanks for the welcomes everyone.
 
Welcome to LPF, MEDDER, great intro! :)

Have fun, stay safe, and enjoy your stay.
 
MEDDER said:
I'll start off with sorry for this being my second post, I just discovered this section.

I'm 22 y/o and been really into lasers on the internet for 8-10 years or so but never got around to getting myself any for some reason.
I'm really into science/physics, my #1 life passion is astronomy (imaging, not so much visual). Lucky lasers tie into it quite well, from using one to point out a planet all the way up to the 20+ watt sodium lasers used for active optics on the big boy telescopes. Electronics is my pastime, I'm not the best at designing anything past relatively basic circuits but I really enjoy fixing stuff I break and modifying the ones I dont.

Just got into using forums in the last few months. Not sure if this one suffers from it, but the astronomy ones are full of opinions and therefore bickering which sorta drives me nuts and that's what has kept me away from them until recently.

No specific reason I like lasers, so "because science" will be my answer.
I would really like to start collecting as many wavelengths as my wallet allows, as many of you do. I am more interested in having super stable lasers than high power ones, but everyone has to have at least one outlier to their collection right? My goal right now (other than building some basic RGBV pointers) is to build a "white" laser, then later on get a 589nm so I can toss it on my telescope for some fun pictures when I'm out at a dark sky site. And way down the line I would love setting up an argon laser but that's a bit passed my budget right now and I am not currently worthy of one.

So to finish it off here is my scope with a red 5mw on it photoshopped to be 589nm after some fog rolled in.

Happy lazing! Or as we say it on the astro forums, clear skies!

View attachment 62676
Click to expand...
welcome,
I too am an amateur astronomer, I am in Tennessee and more of a visual observer for me it is a more personal experience where I am. not as much orange, I just checked out your photo, looks like a ioptron mount and a serious camera you got there, what is the scope?
 
rustynuts said:
welcome,
I too am an amateur astronomer, I am in Tennessee and more of a visual observer for me it is a more personal experience where I am. not as much orange, I just checked out your photo, looks like a ioptron mount and a serious camera you got there, what is the scope?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply, I have been out of town. Camera is a SBIG STT-8300, scope is a celestron EdgeHD 9.25 and as you guessed its all on an iOptron CEM60.
 
sounds great , I know you are serious when the camera costs more than the scope. good thing you dont live in east Tenn, I dont think I have seen any stars all year! oops, I just checked ,you may be worse off after all. Jon
 
Western Washington right now is overcast and raining most of the time. This is a bad time to be star gazing here. Sometimes in the summer it gets clear, but you can never know until it happens.
 
Yeah its never clear enough during the winter here. Spring time it will bounce between perfectly clear and raining. Then early summer is decent, mid-late summer its just smoke and fall is sometimes great sometimes terrible. Considering moving to central/southwest Oregon almost purely for astronomy as that's where the top two dark sky sites are at in all of the pacific northwest.
 
I liked Oregon except for their state income tax. Back in the 1980s they would factor my income into my wife's income even though I never made a cent in Oregon. I don't know if they still do that, but it was irritating to me back then. We had a slightly smaller sales tax in Vancouver because of no sales tax in Portland just over the river from us. Since the sales tax doesn't affect food, I don't mind it as much as I would a state income tax.
 
Yeah I would just be there for a few years likely and wont be too worried about them taking my hard earned money. The no sales tax is a real plus though especially if I time it when I get myself another telescope.
 
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