On Thu, Aug 09, 2001 at 04:00:32PM +0100, Andrew Nemchenko wrote: > No this is completly diffent the link you sent explains that they use a > laser to create an artificial dot in the sky and then they measure the > distortion in the atmosphere and use a flexible mirror to compensate for > this distorion, with the compensation the stars apper more clearly. What > I saw was completely different, they basically used a giant green colored > laser to burn a hole in the atmosphere, then for a very shor amount of > time they were able to take pictures through that hole with no > distortion. These are two different thngs. I'm going to take significant convincing to believe this one - do you have a reference on it? The period of time that a lightning strike makes a vacuum is going to be roughly analogous to this - your looking at a tenth of a second AT MOST! And the Hubble can't get a usable image that fast. I find it very difficult to believe that they get enough light down this little narrow pipe (it can't be more than inches across, and you usually measure professional telescopes in FEET!) -- Scott Raun sraun at fireopal.org