A means for overcoming perspective foreshortening in the receiver of a diffraction range finder by use of chirp diffraction grating 121. In a diffraction range finder, a diffraction grating with variations in pitch such that the displacement of higher-order diffraction images in a receiver are separated from their associated zero-order image by an arbitrary displacement with respect to an arbitrary target distance. A system for ranging a target comprising a variable pitch grating 122 and a receiver 200 of the diffraction images formed by said grating.