Aberration

Description

The term 'aberration' is most commonly used to refer to a defect in an optical system that degrades the image quality. Optical aberrations, such as Chromatic aberration, Spherical aberration, astigmatic, comatic, etc., are sometimes found in lenses for cameras and microscopes. For example, an optical aberration can cause a straight line to appear curved. Aberrations may be inherent in the lens material or due to flaws in the lens design or production.

Synonyms and Related Terms

Aberration (Deut.); aberration (Fr.);

Resources and Citations

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• Walter C. McCrone, John Gustave Delly, The Particle Atlas, W. McCrone Associates, Chicago, IV, 1972

• ASTM, Standard Terminology of Microscopy, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Section 14, General Methods and Instrumentation, ASTM, E175, 75-78, May 1982

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998