Stereoscopic Imagery in a Type of Stereoscopic Microscope

Abstract

An analysis is made, from the point of view of first order geometrical optics, of the stereoscopic imagery in the type of stereoscopic microscope which consists of a simple magnifier followed by a sort of binocular field glass. The imagery cannot be orthostereoscopic. Equations are given for the transformation from object space coordinates to image space coordinates, for lateral and longitudinal magnifications, for the ratio of longitudinal to lateral magnification, and for the factor by which the instrument enhances the ability to detect small differences in depths of the object. When the eyepiece axes are not parallel, certain complications in interpreting the imagery are encountered.