Lighting apparatus

A lighting apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of LED structures having a plurality of LEDs arranged in a row;
• a wiring board having an elongated shape, on which the LEDs are mounted;
• and
• an optical lens that covers the LED structures, and controls distribution of light emitted from each of the LEDs, wherein
• each of the plurality of LED structures includes a plurality of LED types that each emit light of a different color from each other and are mounted on the wiring board in a row, and
• the light emitted from each LED has an optical axis orthogonal to the wiring board,
• the optical lens is a converging lens which has an elongated shape that covers all of the LEDs included in at least one of the LED structures, and includes a light incident surface on which the light emitted from the LED is incident, a medium that guides the light incident from the light incident surface, a light emitting surface that emits the light guided through the medium, and a diffuser that contains diffusing particles for causing the light incident from the LED to diffuse, and
• the concentration of the diffusing particles in the diffuser is high in the vicinity of the optical axis of the light emitted from the LED and gradually decreases as a distance from the optical axis increases,
• wherein the medium contains the diffusing particles to provide the diffuser.