An image forming optical system according to the present invention is characterized in that, in an image forming optical system having a positive lens group, a negative lens group, and an aperture stop, the positive lens group is disposed at an object side of the aperture stop, the positive lens group has a cemented lens which is formed by cementing a plurality of lenses, in a rectangular coordinate system in which a horizontal axis is let to be Nd and a vertical axis is let to be νd, when a straight line indicated by Nd=α×νd+β (where, α=−0.017) is set, Nd and νd of at least one lens forming the cemented lens is included in both of areas namely, an area which is determined by a line when a lower limit value is in a range of a following conditional expression (1a), and a line when an upper limit value is in a range of the following conditional expression (1a), and of an area determined by following conditional expressions (2a) and (3a). 1.45