Number 25 (Story #3), March, 14 1991 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein NEW GROUND-BASED TELESCOPES planned or under construction will quadruple the total light-gathering area available to astronomers using optical telescopes. Examples include the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (with a primary area of 210 m2) and the Keck Observatory (76 m2). Other factors which contribute to this surge in optical astronomy are adaptive optics, a dynamic mirror adjustment process which reduces the distortions caused by the blurring of light coming through the Earth's turbulent atmosphere, and solid-state detectors some 50 times more efficient than photographic plates. (Physics Today, Mar. 1991.)