Adaptive optics is a
technology to improve the performance of
optical systems by reducing the effects of rapidly changing optical distortion. It is commonly used on astronomical telescopes to remove the effects of atmospheric distortion, or
astronomical seeing. Adaptive optics works by measuring the distortion and rapidly compensating for it either using deformable
mirrors or material with variable refractive properties. While the technique was theoretically understood for some time, it was only advances in
computer technology during the
1990s that finally made the technique practical. Adaptive optics should not be confused with
active optics, which works on a longer timescale to correct the primary mirror geometry itself. The simplest form of adaptive optics is tip-tilt correction, which corresponds to correction of the
tilts of the wavefront in two dimensions (equivalent to correction of the position offsets for the image). This is performed using a rapidly moving tip-tilt mirror which makes small rotations around two of its axes. A significant fraction of the aberration introduced by the atmosphere can be removed in this way. Tip-tilt mirrors are widely used in night time and solar
telescopes, to correct the aberration introduced by the
atmosphere on the light path and improve image quality over what would be possible according to the atmospheric
seeing. Tip-tilt mirrors are effectively segmented adaptive optics mirrors having only one segment which can tip and tilt, rather than having an array of multiple segments which can tip and tilt independently.
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A system of fast reacting electronic supports which deform the mirror inside a telescope to compensate for the way in which the Earth's atmosphere distorts our view of celestial objects. In effect in detects the twinkling of stars and moves the telescope's mirror to cancel this out. This process stops the image from blurring and allows more detail to be seen. See also active optics.
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