Glasses!

[matteboy]

:glasses1:Glasses! Help! I've just got some glasses, I've never worn them before but I now can see a lot more in the night sky with them on:D

However, I can't see through my 'scope wearing them and when I take them off and look through everything seems out of focus, just looking for a little advice on what my fellow spectacle wearing star gazers do?

[pvaz]

Well I can think of 2 possible solutions:

1) contact lenses.

2) buy 2 quality eyepieces with a bit of eye relief.

Eye relief is the distance your eye/glasses can be from the eyepiece in order to see through it. I think you should look for something with 12mm to 20mm of eye relief.

Such as:

Skywatcher nirvanas

Meade 5000s

And probably many others I don't know of.

[xyz]

Yes, jiggling around with glasses is a pain. Of course if you take your specs. off to view through the eyepiece after getting target in focus with them on, you will need to re-adjust focus a little. Try and keep them on though, it should be possible to still see well through the eyepiece. As said above, more relief will help.

I gave up with the red-dot finder scope - I cannot see the dot (very near) in focus with the star (very far) at the same time. Ended up making a finderscope out of a piece of plastic water pipe - ie. just a straight tube - no conflicting focus points. It might not be optimal, but it works.

[brianb]

You don't say what your glasses are for, I'd guess short sight ... I have moderate short sight in one eye & slight short sight in the other. Glasses come off & stay off except for naked eye observation of the sky (when the glasses improve my limiting magnitude from ~4 to ~6.5). You do not need to wear glasses for observing through the scope or binoculars, except at low powers and only then if you're severely astigmatic. Short/long sight correction is easily applied by tweaking the focus.

Contact lenses? Hate them ... really uncomfortable in low temperatures (eye watering). LER eyepieces with specs? Light gets in at the sides & the extra surfaces reduce light grasp & contrast to some extent.

[steppenwolf]

I hate this situation myself - one of the joys of mainly imaging!! I find observing through the EP with the glasses off works best for me. I wear mine on a cord round my neck when doing astronomy a la auntie Gertrude.

[Breakintheclouds]

You don't say what your glasses are for, I'd guess short sight ... I have moderate short sight in one eye & slight short sight in the other. Glasses come off & stay off except for naked eye observation of the sky (when the glasses improve my limiting magnitude from ~4 to ~6.5). You do not need to wear glasses for observing through the scope or binoculars, except at low powers and only then if you're severely astigmatic. Short/long sight correction is easily applied by tweaking the focus.

Based on my own experience of being a bit short-sighted I totally agree with this - let the telescope's focus do the correction for you.

Contact lenses? Hate them ... really uncomfortable in low temperatures (eye watering).

But I disagree with this! Mostly, these days, I wear contacts and find them fine, even in cold weather. The biggest issue I have with them is that they dry out if you don't blink - and I often go for long periods without blinking when I'm trying to focus. Several times last night I thought my scope was showing some strange coma-like distortion, but it was just that the surface of the lenses had dried out!

[George Jones]

As brianb has noted, you haven't said why you need glasses. I have substantial astigmatism (for which the focuser can't compensate) in both eyes, so I buy long eye relief eyepieces (as noted in post by pvaz) and observer with with my glasses on.

[iamjulian]

I swap about with mine. When using the finder I have to wear them, but then put them on the top of my head when looking through the EP. I like to put my eye in the cup so that surrounding light (neighbours' bathroom lights, etc) doesn't interfere. As others have said, you do have to refocus slightly when you take them off.

[matteboy]

Hi People thanks for all the replies! I don't really know whether I'm long or short sighted, I need them for everything! computer work to driving, everything is a lot sharper at distance and the stars are now pinpricks rather than fuzzy pinpricks! Contacts? No chance! Would consider the long eye relief eyepieces but would have to wait for another delivery from Santa for them! Really struggling to focus my 'scope though at the mo, (60mm x 900mm Teleskop Refractor) I've cleaned the lens and eyepieces I have and it hasn't made much difference, it's almost like there's condensation but it never seems to clear, I keep my scope in the 'cold' room so don't think it is condensation. I did manage the best view yet of m42 I've had though last night (without glasses on!) So I'll just have to keep on hunting for m81 and m82 and hope for some luck! By the way if I'm not realistically going to find these two in my 'scope can someone let me know!!! Thanks again peeps:icon_eek:

[Darren B]

I have astigmatism, so I have to wear mine all the time. I have bought long eye-relief eyepieces so that I'm not messing about taking them on and off. Baader Hyperions and TMB Planetaries work best for me. Also I use a red dot finder as I can keep both eyes open.

[astro_dt]

I am shortsighted so I need glasses to see the sky and take them off to look into the scope.

I have recently started wearing one disposable contact lens. My brain is starting to adjust and I can see the sky and still use the uncorrected eye to look into the eyepiece.

It's ok for observing but I would not recommend it for driving or other activities because depth preception is affected.

Cheers

Danny