White Light Eye Floaters

[bomberbaz]

So I am using a frac and lunt solar wedge. I am finding focus fine, getting some lovely crisp and sharp results but my issue is as per the title eye floaters right in the central view of my eyepiece. Obviously the higher the magnitude, the more this becomes an issue.

I am trying to pick up granulation but always my eye focus keeps picking up the floaters and so eye focus is way out for picking up surface detail. I have never had a problem with any other viewing so this is really being a pain. I am using a F10/90mm frac btw. Cranked up to x180 to try to get the surface detail. I have tried viewing the solar edge but obviously the detail is much harder to pick out at the edge.

So what does anyone do to get around floaters, any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Steve

[Stu]

11 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

So I am using a frac and lunt solar wedge. I am finding focus fine, getting some lovely crisp and sharp results but my issue is as per the title eye floaters right in the central view of my eyepiece. Obviously the higher the magnitude, the more this becomes an issue.

I am trying to pick up granulation but always my eye focus keeps picking up the floaters and so eye focus is way out for picking up surface detail. I have never had a problem with any other viewing so this is really being a pain. I am using a F10/90mm frac btw. Cranked up to x180 to try to get the surface detail. I have tried viewing the solar edge but obviously the detail is much harder to pick out at the edge.

So what does anyone do to get around floaters, any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Steve

The only two options really are larger aperture or binoviewers. Larger aperture increases the exit pupil at a given magnification but obviously there are limits, and I find around 100 to 120mm optimum for solar white light so at high power you are always looking at small exit pupils.

The solution for me is binoviewers. They took me a long time to get used to, but I now use them all the time for both white light and Ha. They don’t get rid of the floaters completely, but do reduce their impact so that they are not a major distraction.

As for finding the focus point, @Littleguy80 and I had a bit of a discussion on this recently as it can be tricky if your eye just won’t pick up the correct point. I find that either tweaking the focus in and out, or better still panning the scope across the surface can be enough for you to suddenly pick it up and for the granulation to snap into view.

[Paul M]

I have terrible floaters that get in the way at the eyepiece.

I find them worse after sudden eye movement, particularly looking up/down rapidly. If I have the eyepiece at a convenient viewing position so that my head is in a forward looking/horizontal position as though I'm looking towards the horizon the worst floaters tend to settle. Not always easy to get the head/eye viewing position right but it does make difference when I can. Avoiding rapid eye movement is equally difficult!

If you feel so inclined, I believe there is a surgical procedure where the vitreous humor is removed and replaced with nice floater free synthetic gel 😬 

[bomberbaz]

9 minutes ago, Stu said:

The only two options really are larger aperture or binoviewers. Larger aperture increases the exit pupil at a given magnification but obviously there are limits, and I find around 100 to 120mm optimum for solar white light so at high power you are always looking at small exit pupils.

The solution for me is binoviewers. They took me a long time to get used to, but I now use them all the time for both white light and Ha. They don’t get rid of the floaters completely, but do reduce their impact so that they are not a major distraction.

As for finding the focus point, @Littleguy80 and I had a bit of a discussion on this recently as it can be tricky if your eye just won’t pick up the correct point. I find that either tweaking the focus in and out, or better still panning the scope across the surface can be enough for you to suddenly pick it up and for the granulation to snap into view.

Thanks Stu, much appreciated.

Sadly the only paired eyepieces I have for my binoviewers are SW basic plossls.  Even with barlow I am not hitting enough magnification. Although I think my neighbour has a 2x barlow so could borrow his and stack to see how that pans out. Mag 145 ish with two.

Also a good idea to pan the surface as this may also help with losing the floaters distraction and at the same time pull out the surface detail. 👍

Steve

Edited May 2, 2020 by bomberbaz

[bomberbaz]

5 minutes ago, Paul M said:

I have terrible floaters that get in the way at the eyepiece.

I find them worse after sudden eye movement, particularly looking up/down rapidly. If I have the eyepiece at a convenient viewing position so that my head is in a forward looking/horizontal position as though I'm looking towards the horizon the worst floaters tend to settle. Not always easy to get the head/eye viewing position right but it does make difference when I can. Avoiding rapid eye movement is equally difficult!

If you feel so inclined, I believe there is a surgical procedure where the vitreous humor is removed and replaced with nice floater free synthetic gel 😬 

This also cures your astigmatism but costs around £4K 😳 (per eye)

Edited May 2, 2020 by bomberbaz

[Stu]

19 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Thanks Stu, much appreciated.

Sadly the only paired eyepieces I have for my binoviewers are SW basic plossls.  Even with barlow I am not hitting enough magnification. Although I think my neighbour has a 2x barlow so could borrow his and stack to see how that pans out. Mag 145 ish with two.

Also a good idea to pan the surface as this may also help with losing the floaters distraction and at the same time pull out the surface detail. 👍

Steve

Basic eyepieces tend to work surprisingly well in binoviewers. I use a pair of Zeiss 25mm orthos for white light, and end up barlowing them like crazy to reach high enough power. I use a x1.7 GPC then an AP Barcon eithe as it is or with a couple of extension tubes. Truth be told I’m really not sure what power it ends up at, I think somewhere around x200 but it’s enough to see granulation cells in excellent seeing so I’m happy.

[Oldfort]

54 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

This also cures your astigmatism but costs around £4K 😳 (per eye)

I was told by my opthalmologist that there is no guarantee of success.  My experience is that the floaters come and then fade away.  If they are a new thing, its worth getting it checked out.

[Paul M]

13 minutes ago, Oldfort said:

My experience is that the floaters come and then fade away.

Mine too. But apparently it's just your brain learns to filter them out! To be honest, I only notice mine in certain circumstances.

Great advice regarding getting a sudden incidence of floaters checked out. I did and now get a very thorough eye check every year. As with mine, nothing to worry about in most cases. 

[bomberbaz]

47 minutes ago, Oldfort said:

I was told by my opthalmologist that there is no guarantee of success.  My experience is that the floaters come and then fade away.  If they are a new thing, its worth getting it checked out.

Just had a eyetest 2 months since but thanks anyway. BTW I have no intention of getting my eyes done. Managed with glasses for best part of 50 years, think I can manage for whatever years god has given me to play with.

Steve

[Oldfort]

9 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Just had a eyetest 2 months since but thanks anyway. BTW I have no intention of getting my eyes done. Managed with glasses for best part of 50 years, think I can manage for whatever years god has given me to play with.

 

I wasn't more than 6 months since an eye test when my floaters (and other stuff) went mad.  Check out "Posterior Vitreous Detachment" to see some of the symptoms.

But like you, I'm in no rush for surgical intervention.

[NiCo10]

Floaters are quite normal under bright light. If you are getting flashes or notice a sudden increase especially after a knock to the head, ring the optician. Not really much we can do with floaters though and they often increase with age.

[bomberbaz]

I tried the binoviewers, really struggled with them at higher power so gave up, was getting quite frustrated. 

On 02/05/2020 at 18:56, Stu said:

As for finding the focus point, @Littleguy80 and I had a bit of a discussion on this recently as it can be tricky if your eye just won’t pick up the correct point. I find that either tweaking the focus in and out, or better still panning the scope across the surface can be enough for you to suddenly pick it up and for the granulation to snap into view.

However with a single eyepiece I did try panning around using the wifi mount and did get granulation but it kept flashing in and out of view, this was at mag 180 which with the frac I am using is really at it's limit.

I might just try squeezing a little more out of it next time to see what happens, nothing ventured etc.

Steve