ESO Video News Reel Feb 2006.
'Man-made Star Shines in the Southern Sky.'
Today's transmission is a Video News Release by the European Southern Observatory, ESO.
ESO astronomers have been able to create an ""artificial star"", 90 km high in the atmosphere, using a laser beam. This ""star"" can be put at any point in the sky, and it enables the adaptive optics of the VLT telescope to be used throughout the visible sky. Until now, adaptive optics required the light of a strong natural star as a reference - as of now, the artificial star will take this over.
The new technology therefore enlarges the field of vision of the most powerful telescope on Earth, to hitherto inaccessible regions.

ESO Video News Reel No. 07/06 23 February
Man-made Star Shines in the Southern Sky
A-roll
10:00:40:00
Astronomers and engineers are celebrating another major milestone at Cerro Paranal in Chile,
home of the Eso Very Large Telescope array. Thanks to their dedicated efforts, they have been
able to create the first artificial star in the Southern Hemisphere, allowing astronomers to study
the Universe in the finest detail. With this artificial star it is now possible to apply the adaptive
optics technique almost anywhere in the sky.
10:01:10:00
During the night of 28 to 29 January 2006, a laser beam of four watts was launched from Yepun,
an 8.2-m Unit Telescope of the Very Large Telescope array, producing an artificial star, 90 km up
in the atmosphere. This Laser Guide Star has a visual magnitude of 9.3 and is therefore about 20
times fainter than the faintest star that can be seen with the unaided eye.
10:01:39:00
Normally, the achievable image sharpness of a ground-based telescope is limited by the effects of
a