Take care when choosing spectacles re: eye relief.

[Starwatcher2001]

My eyes are pretty poor and I need glasses all the time. I've got varifocals for normal use and a pair of single prescription glasses for VDU work.

A month or two ago I needed new glasses and thought long and hard about what I needed for observing, varifocal, fixed, or maybe even contacts. I didn't give the frames a lot of thought, except that they'd hold the right depth and shape of lens.

I'm not a follower of fashion and tend to pick the first pair of frames that look like they'll do the job. It's embarrassing to admit this, but I didn't realise that some types of frame stand further away from the face than others. It never even occurred to me!  (In my defence, I've only been wearing glasses for around 50 years 🙄).

The ones I chose looked okay in the mirror, but stand a massive 6mm further out than my existing glasses do. That's a 6mm reduction in possible eye-relief, and makes a colossal difference when observing, depending on the eyepiece. I can't go out and buy a cheap pair of glasses to the new prescription as I have astigmatism and my prescription also requires expensive lenses and coatings.

I've now deprecated my old pair to "observing glasses", which kinda cures the problem as the prescription isn't too different, but please remember to check this when choosing your own new glasses!

 

[DaveS]

I too have varifocals with a pretty severe prescription so also have a pair of distance glasses that just correct for infinity.