How thoroughly dark-adapted are you when observing?

[F15Rules]

I'd say two things I have found. Firstly, you can't beat a dark site. When I visit relatives in South Norfolk, as compared to 12 miles from Leicester, the sky darkness is amazing - the Kelling part of sparsely populated north Norfolk is even better. That's a simple result of having less, or none at all, artificial lights. 

The second thing is that it's worth checking which of your eyes, if any, is the more sensitive. I had an eyesight test earlier this week, the first for 3 years. I had suspected that my left eye is significantly better than my right eye - yet, being right handed, I've always favoured my right eye when cyclops viewing. I had noticed, since using binoviewers and closing each eye in turn to get best fine focus, that my eyes focus at significantly different points, and also, that I can see things that are noticeably fainter with my left eye compared to my right - I estimate around 0.5 of a magnitude difference.

My optician's test confirmed that my left eye acuity is indeed quite a bit stronger than my right, so that my prescription for one eye is 1.75, and 1.25 for the other.

Conclusion? Well, if you always view with the same eye, it could be worth trying the other one, especially if you suspect in normal vision that one of your eyes is stronger than the other. I am now trying to train my left eye to view cyclops - believe me, after many years of using the other eye, it isn't easy - but the prospect of adding a potential half magnitude to the faint objects I can see is worth it!

Dave

[Ags]

My backyard is bright enough for color vision...

[Owain1122]

This thread is depressing,

I've NEVER seen the Milky Way.

Don't worry I haven't either! This summer I'm going to get myself to a dark area to finally see it!

[Stu]

I'd say two things I have found. Firstly, you can't beat a dark site. When I visit relatives in South Norfolk, as compared to 12 miles from Leicester, the sky darkness is amazing - the Kelling part of sparsely populated north Norfolk is even better. That's a simple result of having less, or none at all, artificial lights.

The second thing is that it's worth checking which of your eyes, if any, is the more sensitive. I had an eyesight test earlier this week, the first for 3 years. I had suspected that my left eye is significantly better than my right eye - yet, being right handed, I've always favoured my right eye when cyclops viewing. I had noticed, since using binoviewers and closing each eye in turn to get best fine focus, that my eyes focus at significantly different points, and also, that I can see things that are noticeably fainter with my left eye compared to my right - I estimate around 0.5 of a magnitude difference.

My optician's test confirmed that my left eye acuity is indeed quite a bit stronger than my right, so that my prescription for one eye is 1.75, and 1.25 for the other.

Conclusion? Well, if you always view with the same eye, it could be worth trying the other one, especially if you suspect in normal vision that one of your eyes is stronger than the other. I am now trying to train my left eye to view cyclops - believe me, after many years of using the other eye, it isn't easy - but the prospect of adding a potential half magnitude to the faint objects I can see is worth it!

Dave

Dave, I'm right handed but left eye dominant so have always observed with my left eye. My eyes are very different, the right seems to show brighter images but with less resolution than my left. I think if both eyes were like my right then I may have given up on visual astronomy years ago!