Wearing glasses

[nuttystar]

I don't wear contacts at all and so I totally rely on my specs. I am worries that I wont be able to see as much with my glasses. How do the fellow spec-wearers out there get around this? Any tips? Or do I need to convert myself over to contacts?

[Johnboy]

Hi Nuttystar,

I am also a glasses wearer and find the easiest thing to do is lift mine to my forehead when observing. It is a bit of a pain really, because for everything else I need to wear them properly. I know a lot of eyepieces make an allowance for spec wearers, but even so I still find they get in the way when observing. Not a great deal of help really, but this is my way around it!

Best regards

John

[Greg]

Stick with the glasses...You can flip them up for the eyepiece then down again for looking around the sky..

I have a very expensive pair of new fangled contact lenses (Which my optician recommended for astronomy).. They have limited flaring and focus issues at the eyepiece..

But my old Specsavers ones were terrible...Observing double stars were impossible due to the flaring and I also had some false colour issues..

Stick with glasses for observing..

[EA2007]

I wear glasses and I just take them off when looking through the eyepiece.

Its not that much hassle once you get used to it, sometimes I leave them on, but the image is a little smaller and not ideal when your trying to find something i.e. dso's!

I wouldn't go for contacts, there a waste of time if you ask me.

[Dave]

Depends on what the correction is. If long or short sighted, you don't need to wear the glasses as the telescopes focus will correct the problem. Unfortunately, if you have astigmatism like me, you will still need to wear them. A good eyepiece with longer eye relief will help get your eye at the correct distance while wearing glasses.

I have thought about trying contacts, but I am enjoying imaging at the moment.

[Greg]

I wouldn't go for contacts, there a waste of time if you ask me.

Not if you ride a motorcycle it isn't..

[EA2007]

Ah yes, I did some karting in summer and it was a bit of a pain getting the helmet on and off without breaking my glasses........however, Sebastian Bourdais drives an F1 car with glasses on.

[TheThing]

Ah yes, I did some karting in summer and it was a bit of a pain getting the helmet on and off without breaking my glasses........however, Sebastian Bourdais drives an F1 car with glasses on.

That's nothing. I regularly drive thru the Wandsworth one way system during the rush with glasses on - that's real driving!

As the other's hace said, stick with glasses and 'flip them up' for observing. The focus on your scope/bins will compensate for long/short sightedness.

[nuttystar]

Depends on what the correction is. If long or short sighted, you don't need to wear the glasses as the telescopes focus will correct the problem. Unfortunately, if you have astigmatism like me, you will still need to wear them. A good eyepiece with longer eye relief will help get your eye at the correct distance while wearing glasses.

I have thought about trying contacts, but I am enjoying imaging at the moment.

Yeah I have astigmatism so I will look into the longer eye relief thing....

[DanDare]

Even with astigmatism I still prefer to take them off as they are such a pain to wear, even with long eye relief EP's. I found that they would get round blackish marks on them from the rubber eyecups of the finderscope & eyepieces. Attach a lanyard to them and have them hanging from your neck, that way there's no chance of dropping them and you have two hands free.

Otherwise check out Televue dioptrix.

http://www.green-witch.com/acatalog/Dioptrx_-_TeleVue.html

[vlebo]

I have astigmatism in both eyes and recently tried some contacts on a free trial at Specsavers. Trouble is when you have astigmatism , wearing contacts actually make your vision worse than if you were wearing glasses , but I was told they are currently developing contacts for astigmatism which should cure that problem so I will sit tight till then.

[nuttystar]

Useful info - thanks vlebo

I will sit tight for a while

Its so frustrating because I have the same problem with my DSLR as well. Heh at least I can blame my bad photography on my "poor" eye sight ;-)

[scotastro]

Low power EPs (32 to 20mm) of most designs have eye relief of about 20mm which means even viewing with your glasses you will still see the whole field of view. Plossls at moderate magnification can have quite short eye relief (under 10mm) which would be no good for you. EP specification usually give the eyerelief figures.

Mike

[Bigwings]

It may be possible to correct with laser surgery and then you would have no problems

......except putting your reading glasses on to see which lens your holding.

[Dave]

I read somewhere that laser surgery can result in streaks at low light levels looking at bright objects. There was an article about 4 years ago in Sky and Telescope about astronomical observing eye and laser surgery, but I can't find my copy now.

[vlebo]

I also read somewhere a while back that laser eye surgery can affect your night vision , I think they mentioned something similar to diffraction spikes which if that is the case would put paid to my fave hobby.

Maybe things have improved since then , tomorrow or over the weekend I will contact a couple of clinics and see ( pardon the pun ) what they have to say and let you know.

[philf]

that'll be cool if you could - i've often wondered about having the laser thing done myself but am worried about

a) does it last - if your eyes change over time, like when you need new glasses, does this mean you'll need to do it again in a few years

is it safe - hey, they weren't doing this 50 years ago so how have they tested the long term effects

So I struggle along with the goggles :shock: