Optical Aberrations: Understanding Spherical, Chromatic, Coma, Astigmatism, and More

This lecture covers the common optical aberrations in microscopy, such as spherical aberration, chromatic aberration, coma, astigmatism, curvature of field, and distortion. It explains how incident rays are focused at different locations, the impact of using apertures to reduce light extent, and the dispersion of light through different materials. The correction methods for chromatic aberration using compound lenses are discussed, along with the major optical aberrations affecting image quality. The lecture also delves into the off-axis aberrations like coma and astigmatism, illustrating how they affect image formation and the solutions to correct them.