Hiya,

Here is clop's (probably stupid) idea of the day, following another thread where someone was asking how we measure the diameter of stars.

I was playing with my laser pointer, like you do, and I shone it at a very shallow angle along my mantelpiece. Instead of a spot reflection there was a line reflection, several inches long.

I realised that I could

1) measure the length of the line reflection and the shallow angle and so work out the true width of the laser beam
2) measure the brightness of the beam along the line reflection and so work out the cross-sectional intensity distribution of the beam

Would it be possible to equip an orbiting satellite telescope (like Hubble) with a sensor tilted away from the line of sight, and then use it to directly measure the diameter of a star and its luminous cross-section? It seems like this would increase the resolution available. Maybe it would make planet-seeking easier?

clop