Two optical SETI programs are currently in progress at the University of California, Berkeley, both supported by funds from the SETI Institute and the Planetary Society. The first is a search, directed by Geoffrey Marcy, for laser signals that are on continuously or at least a significant fraction of the time. It involves looking for ultra narrow-band visible signals in the radiation from 1,000 nearby Sun-like stars. Much of the data has already been obtained by Marcy and Paul Butler and their colleagues as a result of the San Francisco State University Planet Search and its southern hemisphere counterpart, the Anglo-Australian Telescope Planet Search. Further data will come from observations at the Lick Observatory, Keck Observatory, and Anglo-Australian Observatory.

The second search involves observing 2,500 objects for pulsed laser signals that might last only a billionth of a second or so. On the target list are nearby F, G, and K stars, some M stars, and a few globular clusters and external galaxies. Directed by Daniel Wertheimer, this project uses a 76-centimeter (30-inch) automated telescope at the Leuschner Observatory equipped with an instrument built for optical SETI in 1997.