In a system for analyzing optical properties of an object (350) a point source of light (100) composed of multiple spectral bands each having a respective amplitude, phase and polarization is converted by first optics (120, 150) into a line light source to illuminate an object line on the object. A beam splitter (200) splits the light exiting the first optics and directs a first portion of light on to the object (350) as an illuminated line and a second portion of the light on to a reference mirror (450). Second optics (500) collects respective first and second lines of light reflected by the object and mirror of and collinearly images the reflected lines of light as an image line on to an imaging spectrometer (550) wherein mutual interference allows determination of the optical properties of the object at each point along the object line.