Optical magnifying apparatus

Abstract

Optical magnifying apparatus comprises an objective lens (11) from which light is directed to a beam splitting mirror (12). A portion of the light passes through the beam splitting mirror to a first concave mirror (13) and is reflected back via the beam splitting mirror through a viewing lens (5) to a first eye (16) of an observer. The remainder of the light is reflected by the beam splitting mirror to a second concave mirror (17) from which it is reflected back via the beam splitting mirror through the viewing lens to a second eye (19) of the observer. Focussed first and second images (14, 18) of an object (10) are produced respectively on the surfaces of the first and second concave mirrors. The optical axes of the concave mirrors are relatively offset such that the relayed pupils of the mirrors are separated horizontally by a distance approximately equal to the average interpupillary spacing of an observer. The relative inclination of the optical axes of the concave mirrors may be adjustable to enable non-stereoscopic or stereoscopic images of the object to be observed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.