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So I am a bit concerned, as a glasses wearer, what types of drawbacks or challenges I might expect to face?  Both with bins and scope.  I can't get contacts unfortunately. 

 

Also, just to add salt to the wound, I am colorblind (red/green), anyone have experience with that?

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No issues with the scope. Just try to buy eyepieces with eye relief of around 18mm or more. Other than this, enjoy! I don't think being colour blind is an issue given that most things in space are monochrome anyway as you tend to use rods not cones for observing at night.

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You just have to make sure you have at least ~12mm of eye relief when you buy binoculars and eyepieces. For example that means no plossls under 15-20mm focal length, but in general there are good solutions. This is for when you have astigmatism so you need glasses. If you are near/far sighted then you can remove the glasses and adjust the focus accordingly, there's no real need for glasses there. I usually observe with glasses, although I don't have astigmatism, just for the convenience of having the same focus point as other people and not having to fumble about trying to find things without my glasses - so I just make sure all my gear is eyeglass friendly.

No problem with color blindness - you can't really see colors when observing, only very slight color with some planets, which you can still probably see just not recognize correctly if I am not mistaken.

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that's a huge relief.  yes, i have astigmatism.  And yes, ecuador, I can note most differences. though not always accurately identify the actual color correctly.  glad to hear there are adaptations for glasses!!!!! thanks

 

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18 minutes ago, ecuador said:

. This is for when you have astigmatism so you need glasses.

You can now get contacts which correct astigmatism. They're brilliant albeit on the expensive side. Worth it to me though as I've never got on with optics and glasses wearing, even when using EP's etc with good eye relief.

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13 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

You can now get contacts which correct astigmatism. They're brilliant albeit on the expensive side. Worth it to me though as I've never got on with optics and glasses wearing, even when using EP's etc with good eye relief.

Well, yes, there have been contacts for astigmatism for a few decades now (soft ones at least since the 90's - although more limited than now). The OP said he can't get contacts, so he would need glasses with a telescope if astigmatism was what he had - you can't correct it with the focuser.

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Tele Vue has a system known as DIOPTRX™  these extra lenses are fitted to existing TV eyepieces like the Delos  range with their 20mm  of eyerelief.  Dioptrx can be rotated to exactly compensate  for your own astigmatism.  Its something I had considered, but Tele Vue don't come cheap! I have three Delois, but as yet no Dioptrx to trial?

I choose not to wear my single vision glasses at the scope.

As for binoculars, I have tried wearing my glasses with the eye-guards retracted, but just don't find it comfortable wearing glasses with binoculars, I like to snuggle into the eye-guards.
I only have slight astigmatism  and view everything on axis, but I have read that keeping a smaller exit pupil can help a little, and focusing alone takes care of short/distant vision. 

My favoured binoculars (8x40)  have 5mm exit pupils and a field of +8°. Finding what feels comfortable is your goal. I still highly recommend my 60° ED Starguiders for use on my f/6 telescope,  I have no issues with these eyepieces.

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11 hours ago, northward said:

Also, just to add salt to the wound, I am colorblind (red/green), anyone have experience with that?

Have a read of this - http://neilenglish.net/taking-back-visual-astronomy-filters-ii/

As you will see some Astronomers appear to be able to see fainter objects than those individuals that don't suffer with colour blindness so not all things are that bad.

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I wear glasses, I have got contacts for astigmatism (both eyes) that I wear for sports when I need to (I am not allowed :-( to wear them full time ), I don't think twice about looking down any eyepiece with my specs on, sometimes I've tried taking them off, but I don't think it makes any difference - maybe it might on the moon, but I can't see astigmatism affecting the points of light that are stars - I have huge problems seeing horizontals - I can only really see the 'back' of a capital E when it is the only picture on the opticians board without correction, but points of light don't really have horizontals so maybe that's why I don't notice an issue when I try taking them off, and straight focus-wise well, that's what the focus knobs are for isn't it?

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Worn varifocals for best part of 30 years, and also correcting my astigmatism for most of that time - including the occasion around 10 years back when the astigmatism effectively rotated 180 deg in both eyes...  Haven't got a scope, but depending on the actual 'model' of glasses at the time, it can take some fiddling to get the head/glasses angled to the binoc eyecup correctly to get the appropriate view - the depth and shape of the spectacles lens can also make a big difference to having a wide 'clear FOV' for simply looking at the night sky.  It would be simpler to not wear the specs when observing, but without them I really couldn't work out what I was trying to point the binocs at :(  

One frustration with astro-binocs I've looked at or had, is that they do not incorporate sliding eyecups (as per terrestrial/birdwatching oriented models), the fold-back rubber cups on my elderly 15x70s became so perished that in the end I had to carefully trim them with a craft knife - I'm the only one going to be using them so they're OK for me.

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I am short-sighted (wear varifocals now) and also red-green colour blind.Relatively new to this stargazing thing and so far not noticed any major problems but tend to take my glasses off when using telescopes/binoculars

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bejay1957, I am most relieved that I am not the only one to take a craft knife to perished eyecups on a set of bins - I deployed this solution many years ago when my Inpro birdwatching windsill bins. frayed.

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awesome everyone.  this is great info and definitely has boosted my spirits.  so far i am still far away from doing bins or scope viewing.  i was trying to wrap my brain around declination and right ascention the other day...this hobby will definitely be a life long project, but it has my spirits jacked.  can't wait for these damn clouds to blow by.  

 

 

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10 hours ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Have a read of this - http://neilenglish.net/taking-back-visual-astronomy-filters-ii/

As you will see some Astronomers appear to be able to see fainter objects than those individuals that don't suffer with colour blindness so not all things are that bad.

That is far beyond my understanding, but the bit on colorblindness made me smile.  I've never had colorblindness ever be considered a bonus. Smiling. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm another one who wears varifocals with a small degree of astigmatism correction. I find it easiest to observe without my glasses on (binoculars or telescope), but of course, that means I keep putting them on and taking them off (impeded by a fleecy hat on a cold night) when I go between the eyepiece and the controller or computer, etc. It's a nuisance, but it doesn't spoil the enjoyment B)

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I have glasses and some (slight) astigmatism, the biggest problem I have is remembering where I have put the things when I take them off. I tend to switch between On and Off. The view seems to be little different immaterial of wearing them or not.

Cannot help on the Red/Green aspect, but there are not really any Green stars. So not a clue how that would transpire. Interesting aspect in some ways.

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I have worn varifocals since I was 11, because of astigmatism, and I am now 71, and according to my optician my astigmatism is unusually bad. However, I never use glasses at the EP because the stars, nebula and  galaxies look perfectly good without them, my glasses just make it more difficult, not better,  to view these  objects. It is when I look away from the eyepiece to the laptop, or whatever, that my astigmatism causes a problem. For me the solution is to push my glasses up on my head when at the EP and pop them on again when looking elsewhere. Astigmatism does not cause me any problems regarding astronomy, either at the EP or through the bins. As has already been said regarding colourblindness, when looking through the EP everything is B&W anyway, unless you have a very large telescope.

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On ‎04‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 18:42, Jon Sales said:

I take mine off for observation and photography 

I can see that working for observation when it is only you looking and you can adjust the focus of your telescope for your eyes, but (assuming we are talking DSLR here) unless you are using automatic focussing for the photography wouldn't that result in an out of focus photo?  i.e. you focus the image to what then looks in focus for you through the viewfinder, but it won't necessarily be focus for others or for the camera.  NB.  This comment arises from just having a problem solved by SGL with my daughters camera.

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I suffer from  astigmatism too, but I believe that it is only slight. Also I don`t wear glasses all the time, only when I need them.

I own two glasses because I am long and short sighted, one is for driving and watching TV, these pair I wear the most because  I will wear them when I go out for a day too. My other pair is used for reading. I don`t bother using them when looking at the laptop.

In the next few weeks once I`ve acquired my telescope I plan to observe and sketch the planets. Can anyone answer my question. What shall I do about my glasses.

Can I not use them? The scope will be used mainly for looking at bright objects. Of course a rough sketch will be made at the scope with notes.

Also not using glasses, will it stop me from seeing faint detail on the planets? I was always under the impression that it didn`t matter when looking thru a eyepiece

Any advice would be much appreciated 

 

 

 

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Hi,

I wear varifocals for astigmatism - without them this tends to mean that stars appear as points with ghost points slightly above. My coping strategy is to wear my varifocals on a spectacle cord around my neck.  I only take them off when using higher power eyepieces with less than 12 mm eye relief.

I find high power eyepieces with very small fields of view tend to counteract astigmatism possibly due to an something known as the pinhole effect.

An easy way to demonstrate this is to make a fist and put it up to one eye while closing the other eye. Open the fist just enough to create a small hole to look through. If you have a refractive error, you should be able to read print through this hole that was previously unreadable. 

Here is a fuller explanation:

http://www.myopia.org/pinholes.htm

If you are simply short sighted then adjusting the focus knob will allow you to to use the eyepiece without glasses.

Hope this helps. :glasses9:

John

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On 23 January 2017 at 18:12, bejay1957 said:

It would be simpler to not wear the specs when observing, but without them I really couldn't work out what I was trying to point the binocs at :(  

 

I think that sums me up too. Distance glasses on to use the red dot or look at the sky, reading glasses for the sky atlas, no glasses for the eyepiece ... all too much hassle and misted up glass! Varifocals on and use eyepieces that suit me. I can see the stars, read the atlas, see the red dot and I can observe too and the glasses keep warm so don't mist up!

I also find birding is impossible if you have to keep swapping glasses ...

AndyG

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