BRAINCAKEChromatic and Spherical Aberration
Real lenses and mirrors do not bring all rays to a single perfect focus. Two faults, called aberrations, blur the image.
Chromatic aberration happens in lenses. The refractive index of glass depends on the wavelength of light, so different colours are refracted by different amounts. Blue light is refracted more than red light, so a converging lens brings blue light to a focus closer to the lens than red light. There is no single focal point, so the image is blurred and has coloured fringes.
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More in Astrophysics
- Refracting Telescopes
- Angular Magnification
- Reflecting Telescopes
- Resolving Power
- Radio Telescopes
- Charge-Coupled Devices
- Apparent Magnitude
- Parsecs and Light Years
All 24 lessons in Astrophysics · All AQA A-level Physics topics