When we look at a light source from a distance in suitable darkness, why do we see discrete light spikes coming out of source like Fig. b of above picture instead of Fig. a?
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Your cristaline is not a lense made of homogeneous glass, it is made of cells. These are mostly transparent, but still there is a difference at their borders, and theses are aligned at large scale, forming a structure. This structure makes a slight variation of the optical properties, but it does diffract a bit of the incomming light, and at huge intensity you can see the resulting pattern.
It is even more intense at night when you see a bright spot, since your iris is then more widely open (exposing more of the structure).
Fabrice NEYRET
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