Epic Photos of Lasers Slicing Through the Night Sky  European
Southern Observatory photo ambassador Yuri Beletsky shot a
series of epic photos showing astronomers shooting powerful
laser beams into the night sky. The photo above showing a laser
beam pointed at the center of our galaxy was voted as last
year’s Picture of the Year over at Wikipedia.  You can find
full-res versions of these photos over on the ESO website.  Yuri
Beletsky’s ESO Photos (via Fotografia 101)  Image credits:
Photographs by Yuri Beletsky/ESO    • Ndt      All we wanted was
sharks with fricken laser beams strapped to their heads, and
this is what we get? I hope, at the very least, these
observatories are ill-tempered.    • will hall      No
explanation of the purpose? here we go…      On earth, the
resolution of telescopes is limited by astronomical ‘seeing’.
This is basicly the tiny air currents in the atmosphere that
distort the path of light rays coming from the star/galaxy being
observed. The laser creates a virtual star on the sky.