The beam from this one is used with an auxiliary flat mirror, that rotates in declination half as fast as the telescope itself, and reflects the beam down the hollow polar axis to the Coude room, underground and south of the dome, where a massive and precise spectrograph receives the light. Lick's northerly latitude and dry air lets it compete in the infrared with the much higher telescopes on the big island of Hawaii. In any case, the laser is a threat to eyes in aircraft passing by. The Federal Aviation Administration sets limits on the hours of use of the laser, and requires plane-spotters to warn of intruders near the beam, and there is a radar system that shuts it down automatically, if necessary. Bats in the dome continue to provide surprise nocturnal entertainment, and their droppings are among the principal components of debris on the primary during its periodic cleanings.
Raccoons also are occasional nocturnal visitors.
I told you the gap between professional and amateur astronomers was not as large as it seemed. All the instruments and instrumentation were wonderful and fascinating. The astronomical optics used to obtain the data for my own doctoral thesis comprised a simple collimator, with approximately as much sophistication as a toilet paper tube with colored cellophane taped across the ends. I'm not going to give my degree back, but it is nice to see fancier devices now and then. Most of this equipment was much more modern than the telescope.