“But if F still approaches the glass, the angle of incidence
continues to increase with the increasing divergence of the ray, till
it will exceed that of emergence, which has in the meanwhile been
diminishing, and at length the spherical error produced by them will
recover its original proportion to the opposite error of the curve of
correction. When F has reached this point F´´ (at which the angle of
incidence does not exceed that of emergence so much as it had at first
come short of it), the rays again pass the glass free from spherical
aberration.
“If F be carried from hence towards the glass, or outwards from its
original place, the angle of incidence in the former case, or of
emergence in the latter, becomes disproportionately effective, and
either way the aberration exceeds the correction.
“These facts have been established by careful experiment: they accord
with every appearance in such combinations of the plano-convex glasses
as have come under my notice, and may, I believe, be extended to this
rule, that in general an achromatic object-glass, of which the inner
surfaces are in contact, or nearly so, will have on one side of it two
foci in its axis, for the rays proceeding from which it will be truly
corrected at a moderate aperture; that for the space between these two
points its spherical aberration will be over-corrected, and beyond
them either way under-corrected.
“The longer aplanatic focus may be found, when one of the plano-convex
object-glasses is placed in a microscope, by shortening the tube, if
the glass shows over-correction; if under-correction, by lengthening
it, or by bringing the rays together, should they be parallel or
divergent, by a very small good telescope. The shorter focus is got at
by sliding the glass before another of sufficient length and large
aperture that is finely corrected, and bringing it forwards till it
gives the reflection of a bright point from a globule of quicksilver,
sharp and free from mist, when the distance can be taken between the
glass and the object.
“The longer focus is the place at which to ascertain the utmost
aperture that may be given to the glass, and where, in the absence of
spherical error, its exact state of correction as to color is seen
most distinctly.
“The correction of the chromatic aberration, like that of the
spherical, tends to excess in the marginal rays; so that if a glass
which is achromatic, with a moderate aperture, has its cell opened
wider, the circle of rays thus added to the pencil will be rather
over-corrected as to color.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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