Light from astronomical objects must travel through the earth's turbulent atmosphere before it can be imaged by ground-based telescopes. To enable direct imaging at maximum theoretical angular resolution, advanced techniques such as those employed by the Robo-AO adaptive-optics system must be used.
Baranec, C., Riddle, R., Law, N. M., Ramaprakash, A., Tendulkar, S. P., Bui, K., Burse, M. P., Chordia, P., Das, H. K., Davis, J. T., Dekany, R. G., Kasliwal, M. M., Kulkarni, S. R., Morton, T. D., Ofek, E. O., Punnadi, S. Bringing the Visible Universe into Focus with Robo-AO. J. Vis. Exp. (72), e50021, doi:10.3791/50021 (2013).