how does an image formed by a cylindrical lens look like?

fisico30

Hello forum,

I have been trying to understand how a cylindrical lens (plano cylindrical) forms images.
The images are blurred, smeared, only in one direction. I know that this type of lens focuses parallel rays to a focal line instead of to a focal point....

So the smearing occurs along the direction of the focal line, correct?
for instance, if we look at some text through this type of lens, it will look stretched....


I have heard of spherocylindrical lenses: a lens in the shape of a football has two orthogonal meridians with different nonzero powers. A regular cylindrical lens has one of the meridians with zero power....

I have seen a picture of a sphercylindrical lens having one surface spherical and the other cylindrical....how does this lens shape compare to the football shape? do the perform the same way?

Spherocylindrical lenses have two orthogonal focal lines...

thanks
fisico30