3 ms·

And through the atmosphere, no less. (The telescope used is in Hawaii)

• okket 8y ago
  Adaptive optics [0] takes care of atmospheric distortions. Combined with the huge telescopes that are possible on earth and impossible to ferry to space in the foreseeable future, advancements in sensors and data processing, which is also much, much easier on earth and at best possible with constraints / a long delay in space, I think earth based telescopes are still the future. Special cases like the infrared spectrum (JWT) exist. But the delays show how extremely difficult space based observation is. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics [Edit: wrong link]
  • kroltan 8y ago
    "Active optics is not to be confused with adaptive optics, which operates at a shorter timescale and corrects atmospheric distortions." ~ "Active optics", Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics
    • okket 8y ago
      Correct, sorry. I updated my comment.