Posts Tagged lasers

Our Strange Sky: Do You Remember When Lasers Cut the Night Sky?

Posted by mistergroonk in Only in Japan on June 13, 2011

Andrew Cooper, electrical engineer at Keck Observatory, captured this view from the location of another Mauna Kea telescope, the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) on the summit ridge. Cooper combined 23 photographs, each with 1 minute exposures, producing a photograph alive with star trails (as the Earth rotated for 23 minutes) and yellow lasers cutting through the sky.

“During the exposure, the Keck 2 laser [far right] is aimed right over the camera at the Milky Way’s galactic core,” Cooper told Discovery News. As the Earth rotated for those 23 minutes, the laser beam stayed focused on the center of our galaxy, making the laser appear “thicker” than the other two adaptive optics lasers on Subaru and Keck 1.

— by Ian O’Neill

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German Man Builds Working Pulse Laser Pistol, Sells It on Internet. PEW PEW PEW!

Posted by mistergroonk in Intertube Madness, Just Freaking Neat, Technology on March 11, 2011

Laser guns!

Second only to jetpacks when people lament the future the 1950s promised the world. German hacker AnselmoFanZero has sought to fulfill this lost promise. The hand-held pulse laser gun seen above was created for a friend and sold before fabrication was finished.

The Pulse Laser Gun Mk II is capable of 50 shots on one charge and is hell on balloons and plastics. It’s also a serious eye casualty waiting to happen. If you decide that you must own this thing of awesome you can email AnselmoFanZero for the particulars. It’s already miles ahead of the Star Trek phaser hack covered on January 2010. All it lacks is the proper sound hacking upon firing.

We are already counting the thousand ways this invention can wreck havoc at your local geek convention center. We’re also counting how much of our savings we’re willing to spend to get this marvelous toy.

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