The Impact of Extremely Large Telescopes on the Study of the Most Luminous Stellar Objects

The potential advantages of the new generation of Extremely Large Telescopes are briefly summarized. When used in combination with advanced adaptive optics modules which can substantially remove the effect of atmospheric turbulence at infrared wavelengths, these telescopes will provide unique capabilities both in terms of photon collecting power (→2-4 magnitude advantage) and angular resolution (4-5 times higher than with current 8-10m telescopes). The instruments under study for the TMT and E-ELT projects are presented and compared. I discuss the impact of the ELTs on three major science topics: stellar populations in galaxies to the Virgo distance, chemical abundances of the brighter stars in nearby galaxies and high redshift SN and GRBs.