[Styropyro’s] handheld, DIY laser rifle, or Laser Telescope Blaster as he calls it, works for long distances. His solution lies in some surprising physics: the larger the diameter of the beam ...

The answer for [Owen Schafer] was to build it with parts he had lying around and a few strategic purchases. While he was initially planning on using a diode laser, doing anything more than ...

to build four laser guide stars for the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Previous guide stars have used either dye lasers or a mix of solid-state lasers, but these are inefficient and require ...