(method of combining short-term images to yield better resolution)
Lucky imaging (or lucky exposures)
is a means of producing high resolution images
in the face of atmospheric distortion. Numerous images are
taken at relatively short exposures and then the best
are selected and combined.
The best are presumed to have been taken when the atmosphere was
producing least distortion by chance, i.e., luck.
The technique has been used by amateur astronomers since the
mid-twentieth century and is used by professional astronomers as well.
With the technique, diffraction limited observation
can be approached and it can be considered
an alternative to adaptive optics but it can be combined with
adaptive optics, which can in some cases yields
a level of resolution in less time.
It requires a degree of stability of the source, i.e., that
successive images remain unchanged other than seeing issues,
a requirement affected by the necessary exposure time to produce
each image.