A long exposure image taken at night at an astronomical observatory, with several telescope domes. Four bright orange lines –– laser beams –– are coming out from one of them, against a starry backdrop.

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   Juan Carlos Muñoz (astro_jcm@mastodon.online)'s status on Tuesday, 06-Aug-2024 00:46:24 JST Juan Carlos Muñoz

   Here's an old pic I took back in 2019, showing the UT4 telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory shooting its four mighty lasers. These lasers excite sodium atoms high up in the atmosphere, creating fake "stars" that we monitor in real time to measure and correct atmospheric turbulence, thus yielding very sharp images.

   The two faint smudges flanking UT4 are he Andromeda (left) and Triangulum (right) galaxies.

   #astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #science