12-January-2006, 05:44 PM
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Vulcan Moderator
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Posts: 24,311
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Improved adaptive optics
Scientists See Better, Fainter with New Keck Laser Guide Star
Quote:
A new sodium laser is giving 50 times more sky coverage to the atmospheric-correcting technology known as adaptive optics on the Keck II telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The laser lets scientists explore most of the sky with adaptive optics and gives them the capability to study objects that were previously too faint to be seen with the system. Since 1999, Keck Adaptive Optics has provided 10 times more resolving power than what could otherwise be achieved from the ground. The results are producing infrared images from the ground comparable -- and often better -- than those taken from space.
"This has been the most exciting technological and scientific breakthrough for the Observatory in the last decade. It may forever change the way we do astronomy from the ground," said W. M. Keck Observatory Director Fred Chaffee. "We are entering a new, extraordinary era of discovery."
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