This book provides a clear, concise, and consistent exposition of what aberrations are, how they arise in optical imaging systems, and how they affect the quality of images formed by them. The emphasis of the book is on physical insight, problem solving, and numerical results, and the text is intended for engineers and scientists who have a need and a desire for a deeper and better understanding of aberrations and their role in optical imaging and wave propagation. Some knowledge of Gaussian optics and an appreciation for aberrations would be useful but is not required.

The second edition of Aberration Theory Made Simple features an updated Cartesian sign convention, which is used in advanced books on geometrical optics and in optical design software. New topics include centroid and standard deviation of ray aberrations, spot diagrams for primary aberrations, the golden rule of optical design about relying on such diagrams, update of 2D PSFs for primary aberrations, aberration-free optical transfer function of systems with annular and Gaussian pupils, Zernike polynomials for circular, annular, and Gaussian pupils, effect of longitudinal image motion on an image, lucky imaging in ground-based astronomy, and adaptive optics.

I wrote Aberration Theory Made Simple some 20 years ago to provide a clear, concise, and consistent exposition of what aberrations are, how they arise in optical imaging systems, and how they affect the quality of optical images formed by them, both in terms of geometrical and diffraction optics. Later, I expanded this Tutorial Text into a textbook under the title Optical Imaging and Aberrations in two parts, one on Ray Geometrical Optics and the other on Wave Diffraction Optics. Detailed mathematical derivations missing in the Tutorial Text are given in this textbook, along with problems at the end of each chapter.

In this second edition of Aberration Theory Made Simple, I have updated the sign convention for Gaussian optics to the Cartesian sign convention, as used in advanced books on geometrical optics and in optical design software. The quantities such as object and image distances that are numerically negative are indicated in figures with a parenthetical negative sign (-). Thus a reader will find a change in the sign of some parameters in equations in the part on geometrical optics when compared with those in the first edition. In this new edition, I have deleted certain advanced details that are available in the long textbook. Deletions include the plots of the optical transfer function for primary aberrations. I have added some new material as well, such as the centroid and standard deviation of ray aberrations, spot diagrams for primary aberrations, golden rule of optical design about relying on such diagrams, update of 2D PSFs for primary aberrations, aberration-free optical transfer function of systems with annular and Gaussian pupils, Zernike polynomials for circular, annular, and Gaussian pupils, effect of longitudinal image motion on an image, lucky imaging in ground-based astronomy, and adaptive optics. It is hoped that these additions will be helpful to the reader of this edition of Aberration Theory Made Simple.

Virendra N. Mahajan

June 2011

El Segundo, California