optics Q (not astronomy related tho)

[jschaef5]

Okay so I've had this thing on my mind for so long. It's not realy astronomy related but I'm pretty sure it has to do with lens. To explain how I came about this is simple. I talk on aim and my text is blue, but my name is in red. So when i turn my head to the right they begin to overlap and when i turn to the left they spread apart.<br /><br />Its quite the optical illusion. It had me turning my head side to side for like half an hour trying to figure out why it was doing that. I took off my glasses however and it stops, so it definitly has something to do with the curvature in my glasses?<br /><br />It is seriously one of the coolest things I have seen cause the text that i know don't overlap appear to float on top of each other. Its crazy.<br /><br /><br />Heres a picture to demostrate. If i turn my head one way the lines appear to get closer, if i turn the other way they spread.<br /><br />Can anyone help explain why this would happen? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[harmonicaman]

I would bet that this illusion is caused by how the light receptors are distributed on your retina. Here's an Eye webpage with a rod and cone distribution graph which may help...

 

[h9c2]

The colors blue and red are at the opposite side of the visible spectrum, which is why this refraction effect is so obvious to you. You ought to be able to see this happen with different colors to a lesser extend. <br /><br />I believe the term for this would be chromatic aberation.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_aberration