Patent ID: 8350883

Claim:
An optical scanning apparatus comprising: first and second light source units; a light beam conversion unit that converts the beam condensing condition of first and second light beams emitted from the first and second light source units; a deflection unit that deflectively scans the first and second light beams emitted from the light beam conversion unit; and first and second imaging optical systems that focus the first and second light beams deflectively scanned by first and second deflecting surfaces of the deflection unit onto first and second surfaces to be scanned, respectively, wherein the first and second light source units are arranged side by side along a main scanning direction, wherein the light beam conversion unit includes first and second light beam conversion elements that reflect the first and second light beams emitted in the same direction from the respective first and second light source units to deflect the first and second light beams in the same direction, and wherein the first and second light beam conversion elements are arranged in such a way that a distance along the main scanning direction between the first and second light source units is larger than a distance between the light beams corresponding to the first and second light source units on an emergence surface of the light beam conversion unit.