Patent ID: 7995282

Claim:
A method of anamorphically magnifying an image, comprising: a. projecting light of an image generally along an optic axis in a first direction through at least one refractive or diffractive element; b. projecting said light of said image generally along said optic axis in said first direction through at least one first optical prism; c. projecting said light of said image generally along said optic axis in said first direction through at least one second optical prism, wherein said at least one first optical prism in combination with said at least one second optical prism provides for anamorphic magnification of said light of said image along an effective axis of anamorphic magnification, and said at least one first optical prism and said at least one second optical prism in combination generate at least one first aberration in said light of said image; d. forming an anamorphically magnified image from said light of said image after the operations of projecting said light through said at least one refractive or diffractive element, projecting said light through said at least one first optical prism, and projecting said light thorough said at least one second optical prism; e. propagating stray light in a second direction, wherein said second direction has a component opposite to said first direction; and f. reflecting said stray light from said at least one refractive or diffractive element in a third direction and orienting said at least one refractive or diffractive element so that said third direction is oblique to said first direction so that said stray light reflected from said at least one refractive or diffractive element is substantially displaced from said image, wherein the operation of projecting said light of said image through said at least one refractive or diffractive element comprises aberrating said light of said image with at least one second aberration that at least partially compensates for at least one of said at least one first aberration.