Your Eyes.

[alan potts]

This may have been done before but the weather is awful tonight.

Observing , Firstly which eye do you use and more importantly who keeps the eye that is not in use open and who closes it?

I am Left eyed and I close most of the time. When the wife has gone to bed and stops playing with the light switches I normally leave the eye open.

Alan.

[DirkSteele]

Right eye and when there is ambient light around I close the left, but in very dark conditions I leave the other open (find it far more relaxing when observing to do so). I have also experimented with using an eye patch for my left eye (so I can leave it open when there is ambient light), but I have to be happy looking like a Pirate..... Which is OK, as I heard pirates were in this year.

[K3ny0n]

Right eye with my left closed at all times, or as long as I can. I can't seem to get away with both eyes open it feels to me as if I am missing detail when I have both eyes open. Maybe it would be differnt if it was really dark.

Rob.

[John]

I'm a left eye viewer and close my right eye when observing. I've tried observing with my right eye and it's OK but didn't feel quite right.

[Planetesimal]

Another left eye here. I wonder if it correlates to the whole right-handedness thing? Probably not!

[alan potts]

I am lead to believe by my eye Doctor friend in general it is a Master eye thing. I am Master eye left and right hand, I will never be able to shoot straight, for me to do that I would need to do it left handed. I have tried right eye and half the time I just can't see what I am looking at.

I know she is a Doctor but can you trust them? I think it's a load of Old Mother Hubbard, in other words a good story.

Alan

[James]

Right eye here but then my left eye isn't too good. I hold my left eye closed with my left hand unless I'm in a very dark spot as I find any other light means I can't leave the left one open.

Irritatingly my left eye whilst short sighted and fairly astigmatic is considerably more light sensitive than my right eye... sigh...

James

[John]

Another left eye here. I wonder if it correlates to the whole right-handedness thing? Probably not!

I'm left handed but a left eye viewer so possibly no correlation there.

When I shoot I pull the trigger with my left hand and when I draw a bow I sight with my left eye and draw back with my left arm. I wasn't much good at either though

[crashtestdummy]

When using finder scope-right eye through scope and left eye guiding.

Eyepiece-right eye with left closed but try with left eye sometimes if a long session to give the right eye a rest

[The Sailor]

Right eye, right handed, at night look with right and left eye open and look slightly off target .

Jim

[Double Kick Drum]

I'm a right arm over but use my left eye most of the time with the right shut.

I do swap eyes (not literally, just at the eyepiece ) occasionally when an object is difficult to see.

[Naemeth]

Left eyed but I'm right-handed (*left handed for some things, like spoons!). My left eye is far stronger than my right, so that's why I use it more , the astigmatism is much worse in my right eye than left.

[Steve Ward]

Left-handed and left eye dominant , view with both open and eyepatch , much more relaxed I find , no scrunching up of the face and resultant aches.

[Steve Ward]

P.S.

Everybody is born Right-handed . . . . It's just the better ones who get over it . . . .

[majapala]

Left eyed, right eye closed when observing. I'm liking the idea of a pirate patch on my left eye when I pop in to warm up or make some tea. AARRRGGHHH!!

[RikM]

I use my right eye for observing with my left eye closed. I do use an eyepatch over the left eye for long planetary sessions, like watching a Jupiter moon transit or something.

I would claim to be more right handed than left but there are some things that I can only do left handed, like using a tin opener, and drawing a bow. I use my left eye to sight for archery. I can (or could in my youth) shoot a target pistol equally well either right or left handed.

[Moonshane]

I am right handed, left footed and right eyed. I keep my left eye closed generally but recently discovered that if I have been observing a while and then quickly switch to my (until now closed) left eye it seems a lot more dark adapted and can see a lot more contrast in the image so that said about re looking with the 'wrong' eye for tricky objects could possibly hold some water - seems to work for me.

[Steve Ward]

I'm quite skilled at making tea in the dark now , I still get caught out by the zillion watt bulb in the fridge though . . .

Could do with a bit of Rubylith there methinks. . .

Tend to stick with black coffee now for obvious reasons . . .

Swapping the eyepatch to save night vision was proved quite successfully on 'Mythbusters' a while back if I recall . . .

[alan potts]

Very interesting from all of you. I like the pirates patch too and I have one somewhere, I'm finding the wooden stump a little difficult though. Jim lad!

Alan.

[Marki]

Right-handed and right-eyed here. I tend to close my left eye when observing, but have started to experiment with just covering it with my left hand; as Steve Ward posted above helps avoid face aches . I will sometimes use my left eye towards then end of a session, in much the same way that Shane described - seems to work a bit.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Right eye for me. I tend to keep the other open. Right-hander as well, though I am reasonably ambidextrous. This was not always the case. I used to be ambi-sinister as a kid (my handwriting was equally bad with both hands)

[Damo636]

Right handed but view mostly with left eye & right shut :-)

[RMcCallum]

Use left, close right.

Right handed.

[E621Keith]

Observed with right eye, right handed.

Both eyes open. If I am really trying to concentrate I cover my left eye.

[JamesF]

I'm right eye dominant (in fact my right eye appears to be slightly larger than my left), right-handed and use my right eye for observing, but I don't actually know when I close my left for definite

When I'm doing archery I have both eyes open and never found it a problem to "ignore" my left eye. Shooting a rifle I can do with or without my left eye closed, but I think I prefer closed when there are things close to me that might be visible in my left eye. It's quite possible that I leave my left open for observing if it's sufficiently dark, but close it for solar observing when daylight means there are more potential distractions.

James