Should I hate my cat?

[Skills]

My cat has an easy life and I often envy him. I was watching one of those time lapse videos of the night sky thinking "gosh I'd love to see the night sky like that with my eyes" and it got me wondering. Do cats' superior night vision give them a glorious view of the stars/milky way?

(I love him really)

[brantuk]

The technical problem here is more on the "timelapse" side of things and the fact that your vision will view it all in black and white. But if you stand on top of a mountain in crystal clear seeing you'll see the same stuff except it'll be moving too slow to discern (sidereal rate).

I don't believe your cat can see in timelapse either - so you don't have to hate him, but I could be wrong lol

[Starlight 1]

Its funny you said that ,My cat come in the bedroom some nights and wake me up and untill I get up to see what up with her she not go away,She run in the back room and look out the door , the sky is full of stars so I get up and go out and the cat just sit next to me looking up .and she come and paw me when the phone start ringing.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Cats may see better in the dark, but they have very poor colour vision.

[Macavity]

I recall someone saying that feline vision was "6x more sensitive" than ours? Useful for (onetime) hunting in low light levels? Not exactly a "Watec" though? And what's a couple of magnitudes between good friends.

[Demonperformer]

But wouldn't that be cancelled out by the brightness of the light pollution being six times worse?

[twotter]

Our cat likes to rub himself around my legs when I'm out with my telescope. Almost as though he's asking me for his turn at the eyepiece

[Odd Dob]

But wouldn't that be cancelled out by the brightness of the light pollution being six times worse?

Depends how bad the light pollution is and the signal to noise ratio. Otherwise telescopes wouldn't work.

Under worst possible light pollution conditions (i.e. broad daylight) doesn't matter how good your eyes or telescopes are

[Charon]

:icon_cat:My cat Deborah (don't ask) knocked my Baader zoom off the table last night, lucky for her it landed in one of my flower pots. She also a row for jumping on the table.

[umadog]

You probably don't want your cat's vision. Firstly, cats have only two cone types so you'll be color-blind in the way that some people are. Secondly, and more significantly, cats have no fovea and so no high-acuity vision. Their visual acuity is about 8 to 10 times worse (ball-park estimate) than yours is. Stuff will look more blurry, in other words.

[Superewza]

You probably don't want your cat's vision. Firstly, cats have only two cone types so you'll be color-blind in the way that some people are. Secondly, and more significantly, cats have no fovea and so no high-acuity vision. Their visual acuity is about 8 to 10 times worse (ball-park estimate) than yours is. Stuff will look more blurry, in other words.

We only have two cone types? Well, two main ones... plus i think cats have those weird small ones too that help dictate when you should be asleep.

But anyway, yes, you should hate your cat, but not necessarily for that reason

[Bluenosebatty]

I Had next doors cat chasing my laser pointer pen around the garden other night why trying to decide if it was worth setting up, great laugh!.......its the only bit of my astro kit ive had the chance to use in the last 2 months because of these god dam clouds!! Love cats tho, want one but my landlord wont allow pets.

[great_bear]

I recall someone saying that feline vision was "6x more sensitive" than ours? Useful for (onetime) hunting in low light levels?

I scan-read that at-a-glance and thought you said "Useful for comet hunting in low light levels" and wondered why cats might be doing that...

[todd8137]

:icon_cat:My cat Deborah (don't ask) knocked my Baader zoom off the table last night, lucky for her it landed in one of my flower pots. She also a row for jumping on the table.

ive droped eps my self what i did in the end was buy 2 cheap camping roll matts,cut them in half and made a square around the bench and part of the scope a stand now when i stumble about and knock the bench they land on that and not concrete the matts from yeomans were 4 pound eachbargain some eps are 150 pounds

[JamesM]

I haven't had any good experiences with cats and observing. The last major incident was next door's cat attempting to walk across the conservatory roof in the early hours of a very cold wintery morning. I hadn't realised what the cat was up to but I could hear this constant whosh type sound. I looked around and was still puzzled by this noise when at that very moment the cat landed on both me and the scope. I worked out that it had lost its footing on this icy roof which is over 4 metres long and the noise was him sliding down the full length of it. Curiosity had clearly got the better of him when he decided to join me in a spot of observing!

He is a very friendly chap but if he continues with his little interruptions, I might think of including him in my set up as a permanent, though very soft counterweight.

James

[ollypenrice]

It is a miracle that our cat can see anything at all, having narrowly escaped the death penalty for urinating on my TeleVue eyepieces... twice!

Olly

[glowjet]

You surely don`t want to become like your cat, apart from the improved vision you could also dig up your neighbors garden as well

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

It is a miracle that our cat can see anything at all, having narrowly escaped the death penalty for urinating on my TeleVue eyepieces... twice!

Olly

Good thing my EPs are in a solid aluminium case. Besides, cats treat our garden as an area marked "HERE BE DRAGONS" (mainly due to the endeavours of our neighbours, I like cats), so hedgehogs are the main risk at night in the garden.

[Skills]

You probably don't want your cat's vision. Firstly, cats have only two cone types so you'll be color-blind in the way that some people are. Secondly, and more significantly, cats have no fovea and so no high-acuity vision. Their visual acuity is about 8 to 10 times worse (ball-park estimate) than yours is. Stuff will look more blurry, in other words.

There goes my dream of being a cat - I could cope with being colour-blind but I dont want blurry vision again (I wore specs for 20 years). Nice info thanks!

(now I feel sorry for my cat )

[MjrTom]

It is a miracle that our cat can see anything at all, having narrowly escaped the death penalty for urinating on my TeleVue eyepieces... twice!

Olly

I think the cat would be a nice neck scarf if it was mine

[rjsc2001]

I had once 4 cats around me. One in each corner. It was a little creapy.

But it would be nice to look up and think. "My god its full of stars"