Abstract

By photoelectric scanning, the light distribution was determined in the aerial ophthalmoscopic image of a thin light filament viewed by an observer with an homatropinized eye. Light distributions were obtained for various pupil sizes and degrees of defocusing. Measurements were also obtained with bar and grating objects.

To compute the line-spread function on the fundus, correction was made for the double passage of the light through the optical system of the eye on the assumption that the spread in angular measure is the same in both directions. The results may be considered to depict distributions which are possibly broader, but certainly not narrower, than the real distributions in the retinal image. The line-spread function on the fundus was determined to have a half-width at half-height of one minute of arc for an eye in best focus with a 3-mm pupil, and this suggests that the point-spread function has half-width 0.66 min of arc as an upper estimate.

© 1962 Optical Society of America

Light Distribution in Human Retinal Images*

John Krauskopf
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52(9) 1046-1050 (1962)

Optical and Motor Factors in the Formation of the Retinal Image*

Gerald Westheimer
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 53(1) 86-93 (1963)

Blurring of Retinal Image and Foveal Contrast Thresholds of Separated Point Light Sources*†

Kenneth N. Ogle
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52(9) 1035-1039 (1962)

Spectral Transmittance of Visible Light by the Living Human Eye*

Mathew Alpern, Samuel Thompson, and Myron S. Lee
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 55(6) 723-727 (1965)

Vision during Voluntary Saccadic Eye Movements*†

Frances C. Volkmann
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 52(5) 571-578 (1962)