On Fri, 26 May 1995, susan kaminskyj wrote:
 
> Regarding the message from Guy Cox:
>
> > >Our MRC 600 opens the laser shutter spontaneously when, or shortly
> > >after, the scan head is turned on.  Sometimes it will do this again
> > >if the scanning is stopped (though the software).  This only happens
> > >in the first 5 minutes after switch-on - after that everything is fine.
> > >It's a trivial matter - *except* that if someone happened to do the
> > >wrong thing with the sliders on the microscope they could get a
> > >proportion of the laser beam coming out of the eyepieces, and this
> > >worries our safety officer.
>
> Laser light is coherent, i.e. parallel and in phase. However, that is
> longer the case (it is no longer parallel) after it passes through a
> projector lens, such as an ocular.
> This isn't to say that it might not be uncomfortably bright, but is
> shouldn't be dangerous in the manner of a laser. Comments appreciated,
> since I've never fully understood this particular paranoia.
>
> Susan Kaminskyj
> [log in to unmask]
>
If you focus the output of the laser on your retina, as I think you might
when looking down an ocular, I suspect that some damage would occur
whether or not the light is coherent. I don't recommend the experiment.
 
Kem