Oblique (off-axis) astigmatism of the reduced schematic eye with elliptical refracting surface.

Abstract

The oblique (off-axis) astigmatism of the Indiana Eye, an aspheric reduced-eye model of ocular chromatic aberration and spherical aberration, is computed across the visual field by using Coddington's equations for nonspherical surfaces of revolution. Our results show that the amount of astigmatism varies significantly with the shape of the refracting surface and with the axial location of the pupil. For a pupil located 1.91 mm from the apex of the refracting surface (as originally specified for the model), the calculated Sturm's interval was larger than that reported in the literature. However, by moving the model's pupil 0.84 mm axially away from the apex toward the nodal point, a close match was achieved between Sturm's interval of the model eye and published data from human eyes for eccentricities up to 60 degrees. These results demonstrate that the aspheric reduced-eye model is capable of simultaneously accounting for the chromatic, spherical, and oblique astigmatic aberrations typically found in human eyes.