Abstract

The incorporation of adaptive optics in large astronomical telescopes to provide diffraction limited imaging promises to revolutionize ground based optical astronomy in the next decade. The gains are especially impressive for large aperture telescopes where the large increase in diameter D results both in a decrease of the area of the telescope point spread function proportional to D² and in an increase in collected photons within that smaller area of D². The availability of adaptive optics will thus pay off handsomely in many astronomical uses of large telescopes.

© 1992 Optical Society of America