To calibrate telescopes on Earth, NASA's launching an 'artificial star' to orbit

Jun 14, 2024
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Interesting - I assumed they were going to use it for adaptive optics - the standard candle reference use case is way better. Anyone know if it can be used by amateurs or does it need to directly target a scope to be effective. Imagine the latter - but hoping for the former!
 
Jun 14, 2024
4
0
10
Interesting - I assumed they were going to use it for adaptive optics - the standard candle reference use case is way better. Anyone know if it can be used by amateurs or does it need to directly target a scope to be effective. Imagine the latter - but hoping for the former!
In the case of the latter - could large observatories publish real-time calibration data and might be used by nearby amateurs for calibration/adaptive use (descreasingly accuraute with distance from transmitter/scope) ?

Also noticed NIST and Lawrence are involved - could possibly be dual-use as realtime power + refraction-index correction for ground-to-space anti-satellite lasers?
 
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