Blinded by the light

[Grunthos]

You've all heard this before - "Astronomy teaches patience".

Today I went for my annual visit to the optician. New optician this time as my previous has now retired.

Good visit, very professional only he had a new procedure I haven't encountered before.

Towards the end of my visit he took retinal photos of both eyes (good for deep diagnosis - very facinating procedure).

However, to take the photos he had to effectively use a strong flash. This has (temporarily) zapped my eyes and I'm only now starting to get decent vision back (e.g. earlier on streetlights looked fuzzy, as did Jupiter and the Moon). Now substantially better.

So why was I banging on about patience?

Well, I took delivery of my new Skyliner 250PX this morning! (and she's a big!)

Don't really think I'm up for looking at anything tonight (so haven't even opened the boxes yet). 10 day weather forecast is also not looking good. Slightly pensive sigh.

(Well, I might take a peak in the boxes tonight....)

[JonnyP]

I've had retinal pics done a couple of times now and it hasn't affected my sight at all afterwards. No more than a photo flash would, anyway.

I can't say I'm an expert - would they have a fault with their machine?

[rabbithutch]

Due to nerve damage during surgeries some years ago, I have a condition called Horner's Syndrome. This has caused the pupils in each eye to dilate and contract at different rates, thus allowing more light into one eye than the other. This gives periods of extended response to light flashes. I wear sunglasses while driving at night (but that's because I'm waaaaay cooler than Elvis) to damp the problem. For many years it also caused me to have depth perception problems leading an unnatural fear of heights which I never had before. The condition has improved perceptibly over many years but has not gone away completely.

I offer this information because it - or something like it - might cause different people to respond differently to retinal photographs.

[Andy McK]

One of the joys of long term diabetes is the retina can grow extra blood vessels at a right angle to the retina, into the ocular sphere (eye ball, if thats wrong)

so I have had laser treatment to burn these away.

They stick, what feels like a lighthouse in your dilated eye to have a good look around, bung on EP onto the eye and then fire away.

It's like your very own John michel Jarre light show

strait after this, in my opinion, aggresive proceedure, every thing is very dark, and your vision has a disturbing sepia tone to it.

2-3 hours later, everything is back to normal. amazing how much abuse one can take, but i can confirm the "dont look at the sun" advise, because you cannot feel a thing.....

Andy

[JimStan]

I'm getting up there in years, and the other week, I noticed my first serious "spider" or floater, moving around in my left eye. The right eye remains clear, fortunately, but I don't expect that it will for too much longer.

I recently bought a 5mm eyepiece with great eye relief that allows me to get some highly magnified views of Jupiter. However, as you know, the higher in magnification your EP goes, the more it will bring out the imperfections in the eye. That planet looks decidedly "dirty" and "noisy" when I try to view it with my left eye, but remains clear as a bell when viewed with the right.

Oh, the joys of maturity ! ! !

Jim S.

[Astrokin]

The Eyes have it...

Throughout my life I've had the fortune of exceptionally good eyesight and it is the main prerequisite for continued interest in observational astronomy. Two decades ago I could count 15 Pleiades under a darkish sky in North London (of which we get very few). 10 years ago it was reduced to 9, and now I'm over 50 its gone down to the Seven Sisters.

Nature gradually erodes our senses, which you have to accept, but medical intervention is also necessary from time to time. With the eyes and being astronomers we have to be more careful about what treatments we are prepared to undergo. My very wise wife always prepares a barrage of questions before getting any surgery of any kind and here's what you should ask...

1/ What will happen if I don't go ahead with treatment.

2/ What will the treatment do to improve the problem.

3/ What are the likely side effects and what's the worst that can happen.

With the answers to those basic questions you can at least weigh up your options. Sadly no medical procedures can be guaranteed and every one is with risk, the body is full of surprises and every patient can have a different response to the same procedures.

All I can say is I hope for the best for all my fellow astronomers who have any eye problems, at least we live in a time where many of these problems have a solution.

Poetic irony, "we've got the biz to sort out our eyes

but the same technology hides the skies"..Anon.

[Shibby]

I'm getting up there in years, and the other week, I noticed my first serious "spider" or floater, moving around in my left eye. The right eye remains clear, fortunately, but I don't expect that it will for too much longer.

I'm 30 but my eyes are absolutely full of floaters, not much I can do but put up with them