Subaru telescope pioneers the use of adaptive optics for optical observations
Friday, May 25, 2012 - 07:01
in Astronomy & Space
A research team from the University of Tokyo/Kavli IPMU, Ehime University, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has succeeded in conducting the first, full-scale scientific observationswith an adaptive optics (AO) system at optical wavelengths. The team connected the Kyoto Tridimensional Spectrograph II with the Subaru Telescope's Adaptive Optics system and improved the spatial resolution of images by a factor of 2.5 over images taken without AO. Observations using Kyoto3DII coupled with AO 188 are likely to reveal the detailed structures and the formation processes of galaxies.