Abstract

Atmospheric turbulence severely limits the resolution of ground-based astronomical telescopes. In good seeing conditions at the best observatory sites, resolution at visible wavelengths is typically limited to ~1 sec of arc. During the past 15 yr, adaptive optical systems using electrically deformable mirrors have been developed to compensate for turbulence. Unfortunately, these systems require bright reference sources adjacent to the object of interest and can only be used to observe the brightest stars.

© 1988 Optical Society of America