  Near-diffraction limited imaging and spectroscopy in the visible on large
(8-10 meter) class telescopes has proved to be beyond the capabilities of
current adaptive optics technologies, even when using laser guide stars. The
need for high resolution visible imaging in any part of the sky suggests that a
rather different approach is needed. This paper describes the results of
simulations, experiments and astronomical observations that show that a
combination of low order adaptive optic correction using a 4-field curvature
sensor and fast Lucky Imaging strategies with a photon counting CCD camera
systems should deliver 20-25 milliarcsecond resolution in the visible with
reference stars as faint as 18.5 magnitude in I band on large telescopes. Such
an instrument may be used to feed an integral field spectrograph efficiently
using configurations that will also be described.
