A monocentric autostereoscopic optical apparatus (10) for viewing a virtual image, electronically generated and projected on a curved surface. For each left and right image component, a separate optical system comprises an image generation system (70l, 70r) and projection system (72), the projection system comprising a spherical diffusive surface (40) and a spherical gradient-index ball lens assembly (31) to provide wide field of view. A monocentric arrangement of optical components images the ball lens pupil (48) at the viewing pupil (14) and essentially provides a single center of curvature (C) for projection components. Use of such a monocentric arrangement, diffusive surface (40), and ball lens (30) provides an exceptionally wide field of view with large viewing pupil (14).