DEDICATED Norman Crompton is determined to win the race to find extra-terrestrial life - from the back garden of his terrace home in the Ribble Valley.

All he wants to see is a blip on a computer screen - a sign that somewhere, among 1,000,000,000 stars, there is intelligent life which is using laser technology.

Sabden seems an unlikely place for the search to be co-ordinated, but his home-made Pendle Valley Observatory could beat the world's leading astronomers in the hunt for life on another planet.

Norman's search has been made possible due to the generosity of three global scientific companies which have donated thousands of pounds worth of hi-tech equipment needed to make his dream come true. Now all he can do is watch and hope.

Norman, of Pendle Street East, said: "There are other civilisations out there.

"Everything we know we've got in the last 100 years. There's a world outside our solar system which is more than 500 years in front of us.

"What technology do they have? It's like trying to explain to a cave man what a mobile phone is. The latest belief by astronomers is that there are 1,000,000,000 civilisations out there. The trouble is finding them."

Pendle Valley Observatory is run privately by Norman, who opens it free to school children and interested groups.

Norman, 60, built his first observatory Discoverer in 1979, but in 1998 he decided it was getting worn out and built a new one called Genesis. This gave him the opportunity to devote his time to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

This is done using laser signals - pulses in light waves which do not occur naturally. To do this Norman needed two new pieces of equipment to make his telescope talk to his computer and 'screen out' the light from the stars which would mask a laser signal.

He wrote to various companies and was delighted when both Hamamatsu UK Ltd and Electron Tubes donated photomultipliers which screen the light.

But then Norman found out his equipment was only processing 20 per cent of the information it received and needed a spectrum analyser. Manchester-based Agilent Technologies (UK) Ltd stepped in.

There are many types of laser light and Norman has chosen green because it is in the middle of the spectrum. He is also only searching G2 stars - the same type as the sun.

Norman said: "It's a bit like choosing to listen to Radio 1 or Radio 4. You only hear what's coming through on that frequency and it's the same with laser band width.

"It might be outlandish odds that you pick something up, like winning the National Lottery three times on the trot. I may sit here the rest of my life and not get anywhere.

"If a laser pulse is detected it will show up as a peak on the screen. I'd have to release the information on the internet and let the big boys take over.

"If I see it, I will know I'm right. I won't know what it's saying but I can die happy."

ET will not phone Sabden, but Norman might be able to prove he really is out there.