Laser SETI is an instrument that could continuously survey the entire night sky for brief laser pulses. The instrument can look everywhere simultaneously.  The technology, which consists of a robust assembly of straightforward optical and mechanical components, has been prototyped and subjected to preliminary tests.^[1]

It will observe all of the sky, all of the time so even relatively rare events can be found. Laser SETI can discover pulses over a wide range of pulse durations, and is especially sensitive to millisecond singleton pulses which may have been overlooked in previous astronomical surveys.^[2]

As of October 2017, the team had spent close to $50k thus far, have 21 components in hand, 5 on order or in transit, 3 ready to order, and 7 waiting on test results or TBD.^[3]

In 2018, the SETI Institute announced that they were going to be able to deploy 8 cameras instead of four, meaning that they can fully monitor two independent fields-of-view.^[4]

In 2019, the entity announced that the final logistics were being worked out for the placement of LaserSETI's first observatory at RFO's (Robert Ferguson Observatory) idyllic facility, in Sonoma County.^[5]

In summer 2021 a second LaserSETI observatory was being installed in Hawaii, and was operational by Dec 2021.^[6] Two of four cameras are fully functional. Cameras are installed in pairs with their diffraction gratings at 90 degrees to each other. Images are read out more than a thousand times a second.^[6]