a problem for optical telescopes that are based on earth. images of the surface of the moon say appear on. blurred and stars flicka as they seem to do to the naked eye. but astronomers have thought up ways around the problem they use lasers and adaptive optics to compensate for the blur the atmosphere causes. the result is shop images of distant realms. or they send telescopes such as the hubble into space beyond the earth's atmosphere where the view is clear. when the astronauts on the international space station an altitude of around four hundred kilometers look out of the window the stars don't flicker either.