Herschel’s report of better definition with a single lens than with an ordinary two lens ocular speaks ill for the quality of the latter then available. Of course the single lens gives some chromatic aberration, generally of small account with the narrow pencils of light used in high powers.
A somewhat better form of eye lens occasionally used is the so-called Coddington lens, really devised by Sir David Brewster. This, Fig. 98b, is derived from a glass sphere with a thick equatorial belt removed and a groove cut down centrally leaving a diameter of less than half the radius of the sphere. The focus is, for ordinary crown glass, 3/2 the radius of the sphere, and the field is a little improved over the simple lens, but it falls off rather rapidly, with considerable color toward the edge.
The obvious step toward fuller correction of the aberrations while retaining the advantages of the simple lens is to make the ocular achromatic, like a minute objective, thus correcting at once the chromatic and spherical aberrations over a reasonably large field. As the components are cemented the loss of light at their common surface is negligible. Figure 98c shows such a lens. If correctly designed it gives an admirably sharp field of 15° to 20°, colorless and with very little distortion, and is well adapted for high powers.
Fig. 99.—Triple Cemented Oculars.
Still better results in field and orthoscopy can be attained by going to a triple cemented lens, similar to the objective of Fig. 57. Triplets thus constituted are made abroad by Zeiss, Steinheil and others, while in this country an admirable triplet designed by Professor Hastings is made by Bausch & Lomb.
Fig. 100.—Path of Rays Through Huygenian Ocular.
Such lenses give a beautifully flat and sharp field over an angle of 20° to 30°, quite colorless and orthoscopic. Fig. 99a, a form used by Steinheil, is an excellent example of the construction and a most useful ocular. The late R. B. Tolles made such triplets, even down to ⅛ inch focus, which gave admirable results.
A highly specialized form of triplet is the so-called monocentric of Steinheil Fig. 99b. Its peculiarity is less in the fact that all the curves are struck from the same center than in the great thickness of the front flint and the crown, which, as in some photographic lenses, give added facilities for flattening the field and eliminating distortion.