Patent ID: 7528967

Claim:
An optical characteristic measuring apparatus comprising: a measurement-purpose light source generating a measurement light including a component in a wavelength range for measurement of an object to be measured; an observation-purpose light source generating an observation light including a component that can be reflected from said object; a condensing optical system to which said measurement light and said observation light are applied and which condenses the applied light; a light injecting portion, at a predetermined position on an optical path from said measurement-purpose light source to said condensing optical system, injecting said observation light; a light separating portion separating a reflected light generated at said object into a measurement reflected light and an observation reflected light; an output portion outputting at least one of a reflected image obtained from said observation reflected light and a signal according to the reflected image; an adjusting mechanism capable of changing a positional relation between said condensing optical system and said object; and a mask portion masking a part of said observation light such that a predetermined observation reference image is projected on said object to be measured, wherein said observation reference image is a pattern for adjusting a focus of an object to be measured that includes an unblocked region of which a light intensity substantially corresponds to that of an observation light, and a shadow region of which the light intensity is substantially zero.