The world's premier optical telescope, located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Completed in 1992, it is the first of a new generation of telescopes in which electronic controls constantly adjust a collection of small mirrors to compensate for atmospheric distortion to produce images of unprecedented clarity.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.