The importance of high resolution

These four images illustrate the importance of improving the resolution of astronomical images. They also demonstrate the great potential of the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT), in terms of finer detail and fainter limiting magnitude. The field shown is near the centre of the bright southern globular cluster Centauri. It measures arcseconds square and covers about 1/16 of the area of the CCD frame, shown on photo (C); it is also indicated on photo (A).