The legal facts about using lasers for astronomical use

Laser is an Acronym:
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
(it should never be spelt as "lazer")

There has been a recent complaint from a neighbour, possibly thinking we are breaking the law, when this neighbour saw us use a laser at Grove Creek. This document has been prepared to dispel some myths in regard to the use of these instruments. For accurate star alignment of the telescopes at Grove Creek, we briefly use lasers no greater than 1mW in power, as fixed-mounted viewfinders to synchronise the telescope's optical path with the telescope's computer drive mount. Therefore, green laser beams may be seen briefly from time to time, coming from the observatory. These lasers are fixed mounted on our telescopes and externally powered. They are not "hand held" and do not even fall under the new legislation - the new laws only apply to "hand held" battery powered lasers.

The NSW Police Force understands that people use hand held laser pointers for legitimate purposes that are UNDER 1mW. Recently, we received official permission to use hand held lasers at the Grove Creek Observatory. This is a direct quote from Snr. Cont. Graham, from Trunkey Police (our local station):

"It is my opinion from what information I have been able to obtain that the item (laser) is able to be used by those persons with a 'lawful excuse' (and) 'scientific purposes' is a lawful excuse under the legislation. I have made a record of our conversation on the COPS computer database, your reference number is - E 33676648. If at some point other police make enquiries with you I have stated in the COPS event that you are continuing to use the pointer and from what I have ascertained it is lawful for you to do so."

Click here for the NSW Government FACT SHEET about the use of hand held lasers

In short, the Australian Government have now made it an offence to have a hand held laser pointer of any power in a person's custody in a public place or to use a hand held laser pointer in a public place without a reasonable excuse. If police have reasonable grounds for suspecting a person is in possession of a hand held laser pointer in a public place, that person can be searched, the hand held laser confiscated and legal action taken. This can result in 2 years imprisonment or a fine of up to $5,500. In addition, penalties under the Civil Aviation Act for shining laser beams at an actual aircraft, were increased to two years' jail and fines of up to $30,000.

Hand held laser pointers with a power output of more than one milliwatt are now prohibited weapons in NSW and can not be used in any location without a weapons permit. If you have such a device, you should safely destroy and dispose of it, as possession of a hand held laser greater than 1 mW is now a criminal offence under the recent amendments to the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998. Permits will only be issued to applicants who have a genuine reason for having such a device. For example, that the laser pointer is required for the type of business/employment in which they are engaged.

The reason for these new laws, is due to the stupidity of a very small minority of idiots using green hand held lasers to distract pilots who require visual night clues for landing of aircraft. However, contrary to some exaggerated media reports, previous commercially available hand held lasers less than 10mW can not possibly "damage" aircraft nor be aimed accurately enough, to "blind" a pilot. However, these recent reckless "laser attacks" can distract pilots (and also road drivers) and I agree that this does have the potential to cause significant loss of life, so in my personal view, the restrictions are 100% justified. Last year, a helicopter carrying a critically ill brain surgery patient could not land after the pilot was targeted by a laser beam. Click here for the details of this incident. One aircraft had to even "go around" (abort landing at last minute and pull up), due to a fool with a hand held laser at the end of runway 16R at Kingsford Smith. Police have already arrested and charged people using hand held lasers in this manner. Another story about this rising crime is available by clicking here.

Despite the views of the majority of amateur astronomical groups trying to get these laws further relaxed, it is my view that the current proposed laws for the use of hand held lasers are warranted and further exceptions should not be granted. I understand that this would not be a very popular view but if hand held green lasers are used to "point out stars" (especially at star parties in large metropolitan areas) there is a greater chance of this type of use being misunderstood. It would only take one person at a star party to accidentally hit a plane on final approach, to cause the Australian Government to make a total ban on ALL use of lasers (hand held or not) outdoors for astronomical use. Use of hand held lasers also ruin astrophotographs at the darker Star Parties, so why should they be permitted, if only for that reason alone? We are all fighting against light pollution, not add more, so why are organisers fighting to allow them? It simply doesn't make sense to me! In addition, it is my personal view that any laser used outdoors that exceed 1mW in power (fixed or hand held) should never be permitted, as lasers at this power are MORE than adequate for use as viewfinders on telescopes - even in the most light polluted skies.

A total ban would cause significant hardship to observatories, like Grove Creek, that use fixed installed lasers on telescopes for the sole use as viewfinders for the synchronisation of the optics with the computer mounts of the telescopes with small field of views, such those with CCD cameras. This is an essential use at Grove Creek, as most of our telescopes are now dedicated CCD imaging instruments - standard optical viewfinders are no longer accurate enough to land a star on the image detector.

Our C14 Laser and deep sky viewfinder.
Top, piggy-back G-Star deep sky video camera.
Bottom, fixed laser aligned with optics and G-Star field

Resulting live image, use to remotely sync.

As a result, these are the guidelines for the use of lasers at Grove Creek:

Staff are permitted, by law, to use the two <1mW lasers fixed-mounted on the telescopes as viewfinders, to synchronise telescope pointing. Since these lasers are not "hand held", they don't fall under the legislation anyway, regardless of our permit to use them. However, the exception is where an aircraft is in the area and in this case, the staff member must turn off the laser immediately and wait until the aircraft has left the area. The majority of aircraft are on the western/eastern flight path to Sydney. At Grove Creek, this is around -30 declination, so this area of the sky should be avoided wherever possible, when a star align is required. This is despite that most of these aircraft are at least 4,000 metres or a higher altitude, if on the descent glide path to YSSY (Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney) and should not be affected - planes present a very tiny target at this altitude.

NO STAFF MEMBER IS ALLOWED TO USE A HAND HELD LASER OF ANY POWER, AT ANY TIME.

I can assure the community, that although we do have official permission to use lasers in "hand held mode", we have no need to do so. Our lasers are fixed on the telescopes.  Any Trunkey resident with any further concerns may click HERE to contact me (rather than call the police first, okay?).

Steven Williams,
Managing Astronomer,
Grove Creek Observatory.

Disclaimer: We are not responsible for the legal content of this web page.
Refer to the NSW POLICE FORCE WEB PAGE for the latest information.
The current laws quoted above are current as we understand them as of 24th November, 2010.
Grove Creek Observatory will abide by any further restrictions as directed by Australian Law.

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