colourblind

[PaulCH]

Hi all

Just starting out and last night was the first proper time with my new scope Nexstar 127 SLT, I had difficulty reading the red lettering on the handset, and that got me wondering if my red / green blindness will have any effect on my viewing, both positive and negative.

looking forward to your answers

[Pyrodave]

Hi Paul I'm not sure if it will help ,or whether you already know, but you should be able to adjust the brightness and contrast of the led display on your handset.

[PaulCH]

thanks Dave, will try this

[itmo]

learning new things about color blindness. apparently there is a form of hereditary color blindness which kills your ability to see red totally. So for a person suffering from protanopia , the red led display would be pretty much black or very very dark. 

[itmo]

So. most of the common red/green-type color blindnesses make you less sensitive to red light, so that could be why it is difficult to read. 

[Langy]

Hello Paul and welcome.

With general viewing I don't think (I'm no expert) will cause you any issues at the EP. Everything we see through the EP is in shades of grey as they eye is not sensitive enough to see the colours. The only issue may be if you do imaging and I'm sure you will be aware as to what you can see on a computer and what you can't.

[M4lcs67]

I have red/green. Stopped me getting a job as a train driver (obviously) a few years ago. Couldn't pass the ishiara test. 

[catman161]

Do you know if your colour vision deficiency is classed as deuteranomaly or protanomaly?

[Mark-V]

I am red green colour blind as well - just started this astronomy stuff and not found it a problem yet

[M4lcs67]

By all accounts it is a men only condition. Women don't suffer from colour blindness. Something in their genes that means they don't get it.

[PaulCH]

Thanks very much everybody, that is a big help, I dont really notice it normally, but then i wouldnt!

[Langy]

By all accounts it is a men only condition. Women don't suffer from colour blindness. Something in their genes that means they don't get it.

Just like Man Flu! 

[AndyWB]

By all accounts it is a men only condition. Women don't suffer from colour blindness. Something in their genes that means they don't get it.

It's not only men only, but mostly in men. The genetic fault causing colour blindness often exists on the X chromosome. Men only have one X chromosome, so a fault means colour blindness. Woman have two X chromosome, and they'd both need to have the same fault, so it's much rarer in women, though possible. 

As Langy says, it shouldn't make a difference - mostly, things are too dim to do much with the cones, which see colour but need brighter light. Rod cells in the eye are much more sensitive to light, at most frequencies, but only 'see' in black and white. That's why at night everything is shades of grey. The reason people use red lights for torches/handsets is that rods also don't react much to red light, so you can use a red lamp to use your cones to read, etc., without disturbing the dark adaption of your rods as much.

Oh, it's also worth noting that the cones are clustered around the middle of your eye, and are good for high resolution work, but the rods are common a little away from the middle of the eye. This is how averted vision works - you're presenting the image to the more responsive rods, away from the center of your vision.

'Course it'd be nice if someone here was an optician and would weigh in...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness#Epidemiology

[Carbon Brush]

Colour vision variation is very interesting.

I work with someone who can't see an (old red) phone box against a privet hedge. Or bright red poppies in a hedgerow. Apparently sodium street lights and red traffic lights are the same colour.

BUT....Army camouflage on people or vehicles leaps out from the background.

[LukeSkywatcher]

My dad was red/green colour blind and one of his favourite sports to watch was...................

yep, you guessed it!!!!!!!!!!................snooker.

To be honest i dont think your colour blindness will mess with your observing as almost everything we observe appears as shades of grey. 

Sorry for basically repeating the post by Langy. I didnt read his comment.

[itmo]

The thing also is that since some of the ability to see color is in the X chromosome, women can have 2 _different_ copies of one type of color receptor. This means that there are some women who are able to sense 4 primary colors instead of 3. So next time your wife calls red "burgundy" or blue "azure" , you can tell them this story of tetrachromacy. 

[drnat]

I am red/green colour blind and a doctor. Most people with it (yes mainly men) have an issue between seeing differences between the shades of the colours and this can effect viewing any colour that has an element of that in it - eg blue & purple. There are 3 main types of it & gets confusing! Not being able to see a colour is very rare. It stopped me being a pilot when younger (glad now!) but shouldn't cause a problem with viewing under red light of viewing throughout the scope. I was able to see Jupiter yesterday & make out the GRS.

Happy viewing

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[PaulCH]

many thanks everybody!

apart from the useful information, it has made me smile on a monday morning, a difficult but extreemly rewarding thing to happen!!

[Beulah]

By all accounts it is a men only condition. Women don't suffer from colour blindness. Something in their genes that means they don't get it.

That's one consolation...