How do you use a laser to look at the stars?
Exactly, you don't. They guy was probably drunk and thought it would be funny to screw up an airplane. Throw the book at him.
Don't you know anything, silly? You use it to point at those annoying passenger jets that get in the way.
Seriously, this is bad reporting. Not near enough facts in it to ascertain what the real story is. Is it a case of a schmuck who accidentally waved the laser around, or was he thinking it was cool to flash it at the planes as they flew overhead, and was doing it intentionally? I have to believe that he was doing more that accidental stuff for the feds to stomp on him like this.
You use a laser to POINT to a star not to look at a star. The laser makes a beam of light that you can follow upward. Better than a flashlight.
These lasers have minimal range. You should be able to see and avoid illuminating any plane within range, the rest being way up and out of range.
Or did I get your question wrong? Most red lasers are only easily visible at the point of contact with an object. But green diode lasers have a clearly visible beam, which makes them excellent for astronomy class.