It's called laser adaptive optics, they're using it to get more detailed images by taking into account (and correcting for) the distortion caused by the earth's atmosphere (the twinkling effect stars have). You can use a convenient marker star if there's on in the right spot, but the laser lets you do it even when there isn't.

@deathcow can probably point you at a better explanation if you're interested.
>> ^PlayhousePals:

Wonder what the intermittent laser light was for =oI

Cervantes: Don Quixote

Coetzee: Waiting for the Barbarians

Murakami: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Calvino: Mr Palomar

Dostoevsky: The Idiot

wierd, i re-read through the de-lurking thread and saw you were born in Escondido, too... i dont remember a thing about the town... i moved when i was two as well!.. but i do know i was born in Palomar Memorial Hospital (at least thats what the paper says).. so it would be wierder still if you were, too.

wierd in a totally irrelevant way.

that is all.

1. Don Quixote
2. The Idiot
3. Mr Palomar
4. Crime and Punishment
5. The Growth of the Soil

Currently rereading "Mr. Palomar" by Italo Calvino.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/calvino-palomar.html