In: Physics
What is "spherical aberration" in a curved mirror and what is the reason for it? What can be done to avoid it?
When light refracts through a lens with a spherical surface, the rays that pass through the outer diameters of the lens will focus at a different point from rays that pass through the center. This causes the resulting image to be blurred. This is called spherical aberration.
The simplest method of avoiding (rather reducing) spherical aberration is to place an aperture, hole or "stop", in front of or after the lens.