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Virtual Star Helps Mitigate Atmospheric Distortion 6
tanveer1979 writes: "Space.com is running a story about a new star in the sky created by humans to study astronomy better. To improve the usefulness of the Keck II telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, engineers created a virtual star to aid in a complex process that adjusts for the turbulence in Earth's atmosphere in order to create better images of distant objects."
Just a tought (Score:2)
We have this space station up there now and know its exact location at any given moment.
Why don't we just strap a mirror to it and bounce a laser off of it to get an idea of the current air properties?
1. I thought about this long before we go the ISS up there but once we had that in place it seemed like a good choice.
Re:Just a tought (Score:3, Informative)
This technology is attached to the telescope, so it's pointed at the sky with a constant offset from the current point of observation, and it's then monitored with a much smaller (6 inch, instead of 33 feet for a Keck mirror) telescope with adaptive optics, the corrections for which will eventually be mimicked on the full scale mirror, once they get it fully functioning (it's not yet, but they can make the corrections on the 6" scope now).
You're free to shoot lasers at the space station if you want, though.
New Star in the Sky, eh? (Score:2, Funny)