To obtain the sharpest-ever look at a distant star’s deep red disk of hydrogen-alpha spectral light, all they needed was a single telescope. As they explain in their study recently published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, this achievement relied on a fine-tuned optical fiber called a photonic lantern. A photonic lantern sidesteps these waves by first splitting the light apart into individual wavelength shapes. Astronomers then used the photonic lantern to further split apart these light wavefronts by color, like a rainbow. In doing so, they also realized something unexpected: the star’s disk is lopsided.