adaptive optics


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adaptive optics

n. (used with a sing. verb)
An imaging system, such as a reflecting telescope, that has optical elements that change shape, adapting to changes in the phenomena being imaged. Such systems allow astronomers to obtain sharp images of celestial objects by adapting to and removing the effects of turbulence in the earth's atmosphere.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

adaptive optics

n (functioning as singular)
(General Physics) a technique used to increase the resolution of a ground-based astronomical telescope by counteracting the effects of the atmosphere on the image. A deforming mirror in the light path of the telescope maintains a pointlike image of the celestial body using either a real star or a laser beam as a reference
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
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References in periodicals archive ?
The 12 papers in this collection were presented at the Smart and Adaptive Optics symposium of the CIMTEC 2012 Fourth International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures, and Systems held in Montecatini Terme, Italy in June 2012.
Smart & adaptive optics; select papers
This, the first book-length history on the development of adaptive optics, covers the topic from its conceptual roots to its successful application on telescopes with mirrors larger than 3.5 meters.
The Adaptive Optics Revolution: A History
Although conventional adaptive optics can accomplish many useful missions, incorporating advanced adaptive optics into the source and relay systems will increase deployment opportunities by maximizing the system's range and efficiency.
Whither high-energy lasers?
To unscramble the light from cells buried within organisms, the researchers turned to adaptive optics -- the same technology used by astronomers to provide clear views of distant celestial objects through Earth's turbulent atmosphere.
New Microscope Captures Detailed 3-D Movies of Cells Deep Within Living Systems
Masatoshi Imanishi, used Subaru Telescope's Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) and its adaptive optics system to observe infrared luminous merging galaxies at the infrared K-band (a wavelength of 2.2 micrometers) and L'-band (a wavelength of 3.8 micrometers).
Active supermassive black holes discovered in merging galaxies
Their topics include optics for mechanical engineers, optical surface errors, mechanical stress and optics, analyzing adaptive optics, and the integrated opto-mechanical analysis of a telescope.
Integrated optomechanical analysis, 2d ed
Adaptive optics for vision science; principles, practices, design and applications.
Adaptive Optics for Vision Science: Principles, Practices, Design and Applications
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile first detected the planet candidate with infrared observations using adaptive optics to sharpen their view.
Unique follow-up observations carried out with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are providing important supporting evidence for the existence of a candidate planetary companion (five times the mass of Jupiter) to a relatively bright young dwarf star located 225 light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra
To distinguish S2 from all the other stars near the Milky Way's crowded core, the team used a powerful technique called adaptive optics. The method measures the amount by which starlight is blurred by Earth's turbulent atmosphere and removes that blurring by commanding a bendable telescope mirror to rapidly change its shape.
Milky Way black hole gets real. (Astronomy)
The search for exoplanets is one of three major science drivers that were referenced in a recent successful proposal for funding from America's National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) programme, which will enable the WM Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to upgrade the adaptive optics system of its 10-metre Keck II optical telescope.
Evolution of the eye on the sky: The stringent requirements for ground and space-based telescopes are driving the development of innovative materials and optical systems, Matthew Dale finds
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