[aclug-L] Re: Put that laser pointing device to use

[Chris Owen <owenc@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 30 Oct 2001, David Carmichael wrote:

> Inexpensive, yet surprisingly powerful laser pointing devices have
> become ubiquitous in America.  Millions of people own such a device.
> Laser light stays coherent over vast distances, the beams spreading
> very little.  In theory, even a single laser pointer could reach the
> Moon.  The original idea behind Paint the Moon was to organize
> millions of people in North America to shine their laser pointers on
> one area of the Moon at one time, in an artistic experiment to see if
> we can create a temporary visible field of color on our nearest
> celestial neighbor.

I think this paintthemoon.org guy may need a quick physics lesson.  It
would take at least billions of these things to even hope to be able to do
something that could be seen with the naked eye.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/laser_moon_010810-1.html

Chris

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Owen             ~  Hubris Communications  ~  Lottery (noun):
PO Box 1969            ~  120 S Market Suite 101 ~     A stupidity tax
Garden City, KS 67846  ~  Wichita, KS 67202      ~
Voice: (620) 275-1900  ~  Voice: (316) 858-3000  ~
Fax:   (620) 275-0313  ~  Fax:   (316) 858-3001  ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


-- This is the discussion@xxxxxxxxx list.  To unsubscribe,
visit http://tmp2.complete.org/cgi-bin/listargate-aclug.cgi