Experiments with the camera obscura Experiments with the camera obscura

Leonardo utilized the camera obscura in his investigation of various natural phenomena and in his attempt to understand the laws of nature.

In the astronomical field, he made use of it to measure the apparent diameters of the sun and moon, and to observe eclipses without damaging his eyesight.

In the field of optics, he carried out in-depth studies of the phenomena of the lateral and vertical inversions of the images on the camera obscura screen. Additionally, he ascertained that lights of different colors do not interfere with each other when crossing through the narrow hole, and he realized that the shape and definition of the images on the screen depend on their distance from the opening.

Lastly, Leonardo used the camera obscura as a model for studying the mechanism of vision. He analyzed the behaviors of the light rays passing through the slit in the camera obscura and of those that penetrate the pupil of the eye, reaching the hypothesis that these light rays undergo a second inversion, in the zone of the crystalline lens, in order to transmit to the optic nerve the image in its actual position, rather than reversed.Today we know that it is the brain, and not the crystalline lens, that correctly interprets the image that arrives to it upside down.