Principles of Adaptive Optics, Third Edition

Reviews / Votes

The third edition continues to set the same standards, but it has been brought right up to date in terms of the available hardware and the growing literature of this rapidly advancing field. ... The key areas of the subject are dealt with in comprehensible terms ... a standard work for those interested in the field and needing a point of reference. ... the book will give [readers] a great deal of help in finding the route through this world of smoke and bendy mirrors.
-R.S. Shorter, Contemporary Physics, 52, 2011


Tyson offers a guide to the systems, components, and processes of adaptive optics, and the principles used to extract information from beams of light and improve the performance of optical systems by correcting distortions and aberrations. He describes the history and background of the field, sources of aberrations, adaptive optics compensation and systems, wavefront sensing and correction, and reconstruction and controls. Revised and updated, this edition incorporates recent developments, new references, and applications of the principles to astronomical imaging systems, retinal imaging, and beam propagation systems.
-SciTech Book News, February 2011


When Bob Tyson's Principles of Adaptive Optics was first published in 1991, it immediately became the reference text for everyone working in the field. The comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the field, clear explanations, and extensive reference to the original literature ensured its success. This completely revised and updated third edition retains the strengths of the original text. Everyone involved in AO should have a copy on the shelf, and like the original, the extensive list of references (more than 900) provides an excellent pointer to the original literature.
-From the Foreword by Christopher Dainty, National University of Ireland, Galway