aberration: Quick Facts

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Photos

Diagram illustrating spherical aberration, showing parallel light rays passing through a lens and failing to converge at a single focal point, resulting in a blurred image represented by the circle of least confusion.

aberration, coma

aberration, astigmatism

aberration, curvature of field

Diagram showing two types of optical distortion: barrel distortion on the left, where grid lines bulge outward, and pincushion distortion on the right, where grid lines curve inward.

Diagram showing chromatic aberration, where white light passing through a lens splits into blue and red rays that focus at different points, resulting in color fringes in the image.

lens aberrations

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Topics

optical path difference astigmatism circle of confusion coma curvature of field distortion Seidel sum spherical aberration chromatic aberration Petzval curvature aperture microscope lens Mirror Binoculars eyeglasses diffraction grating filter refraction periscope

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Key People

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Samuel Molyneux

British astronomer