Bins for spectacle wearers with astigmatism

[bomberbaz]

Yes its me again with the same old problem, not my fault though, I blame god

I recently made the article about EP's for spectale weares with astigmatism, i just wondered if anyone has any tips/advice for me for a reasonable priced pair of bins that will work for me. The pair I have are giving me double vision down no doubt to my astigmatism/glasses.

I did a google search and found some usefull articles but the bins they were advising were costing several hundreds even into the many thousands. I would love to be able to buy a real expensive set but my budgets taken a real hammering recently, so all i want is a low-ish costing pair for when I only have limited time or holidays etc.

Anyone got any ideas?

Baz

[Capricorn]

I wear glasses and have astigmatism, I use either of 2 sets of Bushell binoculars.

They simply have wind up/down eye caps, use them with the eye cups down to get the eye relief right.

Shouldn't be a problem as many binoculars are built like this these days.

The ones I have are the Bushnell H2O's and the Natureviews.

But as said this seems to be the normal on the vast majority of binoculars now, so you should have a wide choice.

[foundaplanet]

I know nothing about your post.

I have a friend though who had never managed to find a pair of bins that he did not get double vision with until he got a pair of Opticrons with the wind out eye shields.

Don't know why but I suppose that's how it is. In the end he went around a lot of places trying many different ones until he found a suitable pair.

[PorkyB]

I have severe astigmatism in one eye (but not the other, you would have thought I 'd get a matched pair). My TS 10x50 bins work very well with my specs. These are currently £123 on Amazon, sometimes they are a few pounds cheaper from Teleskop Service's German website depending on currency fluctuations.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TS-Optics-Binoculars-Multicoating-TS1050WP/dp/B0039ZA6GG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1357911980&sr=8-2

[bomberbaz]

thanks for the replies chaps, I am mulling a lot of stuff over and this is one of them...

[cantab]

Double vision may well just mean the binoculars are out of collimation. But if not, you could always circumvent the problem by getting a monocular! FLO have one, http://www.firstlightoptics.com/hawke/hawke-naturetrek-monocular.html

[Astrobits]

When I first had to have specs, the single vision kind, I not only had spherical and astigmatic abberations but also wedge. Now I am aware of this I can allow for it when checking my bino optics. Now that I get varifocals I do not get checked for wedge, perhaps they cannot adjust for it in these prescriptions, I don't know.

However, the effect is that the images in my eyes are not perfectly in-line, one image is slightly above the other. I can see this if I cross and uncross my eyes and watch the two images as they merge. Maybe other people have images that do not quite meet in other directions, ie the optical axes of our eyes are not parallel. Try this with your eyes without any optical aid first before finding a pair of bins that are "correcting" your errors. Optical aid can sometimes make the problem worse and you might find it worthwhile getting an optician to check your eyes for wedge as well as everything else.

Nigel

[bomberbaz]

I am going into town tomorrow where there is a local shop that has bins, cameras etc and so I shall try some out in there and get some ideas. Like the monocular idea, good option. Thionk I will start with the shop first thoough

Baz

[x6gas]

I've also got very bad astingmatism. My solution: contact lenses! You can now get custom made toric soft lenses that really help with astronomy!

[GeorgeB]

I wear specs and have astigmatism, though I usually struggle along with contacts when observing. I have Opticron Aspheric WA 8x40's and a pair of Helios Nature Sport 10x50's. They both have adjustable eyecups that give very good eye relief when I'm wearing my specs. I can recommend both to you, though the Opticrons have the higher quality optics.