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It's common for large mirror scopes to use laser beams to create guide stars (also known as artificial stars). Tuned laser beams create glowing dots of sodium atoms that are naturally found in the sky about 50 miles up. A laser guide star allow astronomers to tune their adaptive optics system for atmospheric turbulence in the vicinity of the guide star. Any image of a celestial object near the guide star will necessarily improve in clarity as a result.
The Keck Telescopes are notable for their primary mirrors not being a solid piece of reflective coated glass. Instead each Keck uses 36 segmented mirrors that work together to form a "single large mirror". The combined curvature of the mirror segments are adjusted via computer in a process called active optics. Active optics is a first-level correction for atmospheric distortions of telescopic images.
Other large mirror telescopes can be found around the world. Quite a few are in Chile, some in the Canary Islands, and some in the continental US. Click here to view a comprehensive list.
There are many large primary mirror telescopes located here on Earth. Pictured to the left is an array of telescopes to be found on the top of the mountain Mauna Kea, which makes up the Big Island of Hawaii. Notable scopes there are the two Keck Telescopes, Gemini North, and the Subaru.
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