The latest deformable mirror from Edmund Optics (Barrington, New Jersey, USA) consists of 32 radially arranged actuators that control the shape of a 5-μm-thick nitrocellulose mirror membrane.

Adaptive optics relies on wave-front sensors to measure aberrations in light coming into a telescope, camera, or similar system, and then uses deformable mirrors to correct those aberrations.

Astronomical observatories use several techniques to compensate for distortions in images caused by our atmosphere.