File:Ao movie.gif

English: Slow motion simulation of typical adaptive optics operation at a telescope. The left hand side shows what a point source (e.g. small star) would look like through a ground-based telescope without adaptive optics correction. The right hand side shows what is seen after adaptive optics correction has been applied. Note that the adaptive optics corrected image is normally very compact, but occasionally it "breaks up". If long exposure images are taken, the adaptive optics correction produces a sharp point at the centre of the image, while the uncorrected image is just a large fuzzy blob. Note that the pattern changes much more quickly when adaptive optics correction is applied. This can make it difficult to use adaptive optics corrected telescopes in an astronomical interferometer or for speckle imaging.