Is it possible to have an "off" night - blackouts

[Fozzie]

"It's not you, your a wonderful scope and I like your EP's too.. It's just me I'm not feeling right about it"

Should have been the last words I said to her on Thursday. Even though I managed a good look a bodes and the cigar, I found the overall experience frustrating.

I kept on getting blackouts, never had it before, but no matter which EP I used, I couldn't spend time viewing through them as I kept blacking out the image as if I was looking through the EP all wrong.. I'd see eyelashes black patches n all sorts in the fov...

Was it an off day or is there a reason that this can happen?

[ronin]

Yes, but you can claim no more the 364 each year.

The other one of them is simply YOU, the rest is just the universe and the laws of probability conspiring against you.

[Naemeth]

Sounds simple, but if you're getting blackouts then your eye is in the wrong place .

[Fozzie]

It does sound simple.... Still very frustrating, I was having to rotate the ota for the dearest one and she's a good foot n a bit shorter so my usual yoga positions were even more extreme... Maybe I should get her a big dob, be easier for both of us then!

[Macavity]

Sounds simple, but if you're getting blackouts then your eye is in the wrong place .

Indeed so. A lot of things can explain that... a glass of wine or three with the meal (lol) - Or simple tiredness?

But, as I get older, I find it harder to stay still. Paradoxically, favouring lesser eye relief eyepieces! Particularly

with small exit pupils, I find the large eye-lenses difficult. Walk away, blink a few times? Do an "Eyeball Reset".

[Naemeth]

It does sound simple.... Still very frustrating, I was having to rotate the ota for the dearest one and she's a good foot n a bit shorter so my usual yoga positions were even more extreme... Maybe I should get her a big dob, be easier for both of us then!

Or a stool, or better yet a dob mount - no rotation of the tube is ever needed!

[ronl]

The same thing used to happen to me before I got one

of these http://www.philipmorrisdirect.co.uk/leifheit-multiseat-niveau-ironing-chair/product/

you can stay at the eyepiece for longer and it stops you

swaying, it's the movement that causes the blackout, stops

backache too.

[acey]

I sometimes get similar "blackouts", and in my case I think it's to do with the exit pupil being too large, which perhaps is making the shadow of the secondary intrusive on the view, or else is somehow making it harder to get exactly the right viewing position. I mainly notice it with my 32mm TV plossl (an excellent eyepiece in most circumstances). I first noticed it when viewing at a light polluted site, and thought the brightness might be reducing my pupil size, making it smaller than the exit pupil, however I've also noticed it sometimes at my dark site, at the start of a session. Eye pupil size can vary a lot, and perhaps it takes a while for it to dilate fully. Gets smaller with age, too, so I expect it to become a more frequent occurrence.

[Crebles]

Sounds like just an off night, but seriously, if it continues, and certainly if the visual disturbances happen in daytime, get your eyes +symptoms checked out at optician, or GP. Seriously.