Official News page 7

REAL LIFE IMITATES FED: TWIN LASERS LIGHT UP THE SKY

by Hazed

If you happened to be standing on the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii on a certain day last month, in between two of the telescopes situated there, and if you looked up into the night sky, you would have seen twin lasers being fired into space.

But unlike the twin lasers you used to use in ship fighting in Fed (and will be able to use again one day) these were the adaptive optic lasers of the telescopes, being fired simultaneously from the Keck Observatory after the Keck 1 laser was switched back on.

The Keck 1 laser was originally set up and tested last year, but before power could be transmitted from the laser to the telescope, it needed to be upgraded. A new system of tubes and mirrors has been installed to guide the laser light.

Read more about adoptive optics lasers, and see some spectacular pictures of the twin lasers in action, here: http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-keck-observatory-adaptive-optics-laser-110503.html.

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