Adaptive Optics

Correcting for wavefront distortions caused by atmospheric turbulence improves image quality, these corrections can be dramatic, bringing angular resolution into the milliarcsecond domain whereas resolution without correction is typically limited to >1 arcsecond, even for large telescopes.  High-speed wavefront imaging in combination with deformable mirrors can yield these considerable improvements, but astronomical imaging is driving imaging in ever more challenging situations.  Low noise/high sensitivity and high speed is an absolute requirement when working with low brightness guide stars, and a high degree is camera synchronisation is also a must of multiconjugate or multi-object (multi-camera) AO systems.