In optical engineering, an objective is an optical element that gathers light from an object being observed and focuses the light rays from it to produce a real image of the object. Objectives can be a single lens or mirror, or combinations of several optical elements. They are used in microscopes, binoculars, telescopes, cameras, slide projectors, CD players and many other optical instruments. Objectives are also called object lenses, object glasses, or objective glasses.
The objective lens of a microscope is the one at the bottom near the sample. At its simplest, it is a very high-powered magnifying glass, with very short focal length. This is brought very close to the specimen being examined so that the light from the specimen comes to a focus inside the microscope tube. The objective itself is usually a cylinder containing one or more lenses that are typically made of glass; its function is to collect light from the sample.
One of the most important properties of microscope objectives is their magnification. The magnification typically ranges from 4× to 100×. It is combined with the magnification of the eyepiece to determine the overall magnification of the microscope; a 4× objective with a 10× eyepiece produces an image that is 40 times the size of the object.
A typical microscope has three or four objective lenses with different magnifications, screwed into a circular "nosepiece" which may be rotated to select the required lens. These lenses are often color coded for easier use. The least powerful lens is called the scanning objective lens, and is typically a 4× objective. The second lens is referred to as the small objective lens and is typically a 10× lens. The most powerful lens out of the three is referred to as the large objective lens and is typically 40–100×.
Numerical aperture for microscope lenses typically ranges from 0.10 to 1.25, corresponding to focal lengths of about 40 mm to 2 mm, respectively.
Historically, microscopes were nearly universally designed with a finite mechanical tube length, which is the distance the light traveled in the microscope from the objective to the eyepiece. The Royal Microscopical Society standard is 160 millimeters, whereas Leitz often used 170 millimeters. 180 millimeter tube length objectives are also fairly common. Using an objective and microscope that were designed for different tube lengths will result in spherical aberration.
Instead of finite tube lengths, modern microscopes are often designed to use infinity correction instead, a technique in microscopy whereby the light coming out of the objective lens is focused at infinity. [1] This is denoted on the objective with the infinity symbol (∞).
Particularly in biological applications, samples are usually observed under a glass cover slip, which introduces distortions to the image. Objectives which are designed to be used with such cover slips will correct for these distortions, and typically have the thickness of the cover slip they are designed to work with written on the side of the objective (typically 0.17 mm).
In contrast, so called "metallurgical" objectives are designed for reflected light and do not use glass cover slips.
The distinction between objectives designed for use with or without cover slides is important for high numerical aperture (high magnification) lenses, but makes little difference for low magnification objectives.
Basic glass lenses will typically result in significant and unacceptable chromatic aberration. Therefore, most objectives have some kind of correction to allow multiple colors to focus at the same point. The easiest correction is an achromatic lens, which uses a combination of crown glass and flint glass to bring two colors into focus. Achromatic objectives are a typical standard design.
In addition to oxide glasses, fluorite lenses are often used in specialty applications. These fluorite or semi-apochromat objectives deal with color better than achromatic objectives. To reduce aberration even further, more complex designs such as apochromat and superachromat objectives are also used.
All these types of objectives will exhibit some spherical aberration. While the center of the image will be in focus, the edges will be slightly blurry. When this aberration is corrected, the objective is called a "plan" objective, and has a flat image across the field of view.
The working distance (sometimes abbreviated WD) is the distance between the sample and the objective. As magnification increases, working distances generally shrinks. When space is needed, special long working distance objectives can be used.
Some microscopes use an oil-immersion or water-immersion lens, which can have magnification greater than 100, and numerical aperture greater than 1. These objectives are specially designed for use with refractive index matching oil or water, which must fill the gap between the front element and the object. These lenses give greater resolution at high magnification. Numerical apertures as high as 1.6 can be achieved with oil immersion. [2]
The traditional screw thread used to attach the objective to the microscope was standardized by the Royal Microscopical Society in 1858. [3] It was based on the British Standard Whitworth, with a 0.8 inch diameter and 36 threads per inch. This "RMS thread" or "society thread" is still in common use today. Alternatively, some objective manufacturers use designs based on ISO metric screw thread such as M26 × 0.75 and M25 × 0.75.
Camera lenses (usually referred to as "photographic objectives" instead of simply "objectives" [4] ) need to cover a large focal plane so are made up of a number of optical lens elements to correct optical aberrations. Image projectors (such as video, movie, and slide projectors) use objective lenses that simply reverse the function of a camera lens, with lenses designed to cover a large image plane and project it at a distance onto another surface. [5]
In a telescope the objective is the lens at the front end of a refracting telescope (such as binoculars or telescopic sights) or the image-forming primary mirror of a reflecting or catadioptric telescope. A telescope's light-gathering power and angular resolution are both directly related to the diameter (or "aperture") of its objective lens or mirror. The larger the objective, the brighter the objects will appear and the more detail it can resolve.
In optics, aberration is a property of optical systems, such as lenses, that causes light to be spread out over some region of space rather than focused to a point. Aberrations cause the image formed by a lens to be blurred or distorted, with the nature of the distortion depending on the type of aberration. Aberration can be defined as a departure of the performance of an optical system from the predictions of paraxial optics. In an imaging system, it occurs when light from one point of an object does not converge into a single point after transmission through the system. Aberrations occur because the simple paraxial theory is not a completely accurate model of the effect of an optical system on light, rather than due to flaws in the optical elements.
A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (elements), usually arranged along a common axis. Lenses are made from materials such as glass or plastic and are ground, polished, or molded to the required shape. A lens can focus light to form an image, unlike a prism, which refracts light without focusing. Devices that similarly focus or disperse waves and radiation other than visible light are also called "lenses", such as microwave lenses, electron lenses, acoustic lenses, or explosive lenses.
In optics, chromatic aberration (CA), also called chromatic distortion and spherochromatism, is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same point. It is caused by dispersion: the refractive index of the lens elements varies with the wavelength of light. The refractive index of most transparent materials decreases with increasing wavelength. Since the focal length of a lens depends on the refractive index, this variation in refractive index affects focusing. Chromatic aberration manifests itself as "fringes" of color along boundaries that separate dark and bright parts of the image.
The optical microscope, also referred to as a light microscope, is a type of microscope that commonly uses visible light and a system of lenses to generate magnified images of small objects. Optical microscopes are the oldest design of microscope and were possibly invented in their present compound form in the 17th century. Basic optical microscopes can be very simple, although many complex designs aim to improve resolution and sample contrast.
A camera lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.
A refracting telescope is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image. The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used for long-focus camera lenses. Although large refracting telescopes were very popular in the second half of the 19th century, for most research purposes, the refracting telescope has been superseded by the reflecting telescope, which allows larger apertures. A refractor's magnification is calculated by dividing the focal length of the objective lens by that of the eyepiece.
An optical telescope is a telescope that gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnified image for direct visual inspection, to make a photograph, or to collect data through electronic image sensors.
Magnification is the process of enlarging the apparent size, not physical size, of something. This enlargement is quantified by a size ratio called optical magnification. When this number is less than one, it refers to a reduction in size, sometimes called de-magnification.
A magnifying glass is a convex lens that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. The lens is usually mounted in a frame with a handle. A magnifying glass can be used to focus light, such as to concentrate the Sun's radiation to create a hot spot at the focus for fire starting.
An apochromat, or apochromatic lens (apo), is a photographic or other lens that has better correction of chromatic and spherical aberration than the much more common achromat lenses.
An eyepiece, or ocular lens, is a type of lens that is attached to a variety of optical devices such as telescopes and microscopes. It is named because it is usually the lens that is closest to the eye when someone looks through an optical device to observe an object or sample. The objective lens or mirror collects light from an object or sample and brings it to focus creating an image of the object. The eyepiece is placed near the focal point of the objective to magnify this image to the eyes. The amount of magnification depends on the focal length of the eyepiece.
In optics, the exit pupil is a virtual aperture in an optical system. Only rays which pass through this virtual aperture can exit the system. The exit pupil is the image of the aperture stop in the optics that follow it. In a telescope or compound microscope, this image is the image of the objective element(s) as produced by the eyepiece. The size and shape of this disc is crucial to the instrument's performance, because the observer's eye can see light only if it passes through the aperture. The term exit pupil is also sometimes used to refer to the diameter of the virtual aperture. Older literature on optics sometimes refers to the exit pupil as the Ramsden disc, named after English instrument-maker Jesse Ramsden.
The Barlow lens, named after Peter Barlow, is a diverging lens which, used in series with other optics in an optical system, increases the effective focal length of an optical system as perceived by all components that are after it in the system. The practical result is that inserting a Barlow lens magnifies the image. A real Barlow lens is not a single glass element, because that would generate chromatic aberration, and spherical aberration if the lens is not aspheric. More common configurations use three or more elements for achromatic correction or apochromatic correction and higher image quality.
The achromatic telescope is a refracting telescope that uses an achromatic lens to correct for chromatic aberration.
In light microscopy, oil immersion is a technique used to increase the resolving power of a microscope. This is achieved by immersing both the objective lens and the specimen in a transparent oil of high refractive index, thereby increasing the numerical aperture of the objective lens.
The design of photographic lenses for use in still or cine cameras is intended to produce a lens that yields the most acceptable rendition of the subject being photographed within a range of constraints that include cost, weight and materials. For many other optical devices such as telescopes, microscopes and theodolites where the visual image is observed but often not recorded the design can often be significantly simpler than is the case in a camera where every image is captured on film or image sensor and can be subject to detailed scrutiny at a later stage. Photographic lenses also include those used in enlargers and projectors.
The first reflecting telescope built by Sir Isaac Newton in 1668 is a landmark in the history of telescopes, being the first known successful reflecting telescope. It was the prototype for a design that later came to be called the Newtonian telescope. There were some early prototypes and also modern replicas of this design.
A condenser is an optical lens that renders a divergent light beam from a point light source into a parallel or converging beam to illuminate an object to be imaged.
In optics, a relay lens is a lens or a group of lenses that receives the image from the objective lens and relays it to the eyepiece. Relay lenses are found in refracting telescopes, endoscopes, and periscopes to optically manipulate the light path, extend the length of the whole optical system, and usually serve the purpose of inverting the image. They may be made of one or more conventional lenses or achromatic doublets, or a long cylindrical gradient-index of refraction lens.
In photography, a long-focus lens is a camera lens which has a focal length that is longer than the diagonal measure of the film or sensor that receives its image. It is used to make distant objects appear magnified with magnification increasing as longer focal length lenses are used. A long-focus lens is one of three basic photographic lens types classified by relative focal length, the other two being a normal lens and a wide-angle lens. As with other types of camera lenses, the focal length is usually expressed in a millimeter value written on the lens, for example: a 500 mm lens. The most common type of long-focus lens is the telephoto lens, which incorporate a special lens group known as a telephoto group to make the physical length of the lens shorter than the focal length.
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