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Hi Alex,
Yeah, I was passionately interested in the issue of how best to detect diffuse & extremely-low-surface-brightness objects and features, for the 26 years that I was a regular visual observer. So, I kept my ears open for information about the retina, and I tried various things.
(I only observe 3-5 times per year at present. These days, I specialize only in the morphologies and properties of galaxies)
I think that I have described exactly what I do when I am trying to see low surface brightness nebulosity or galaxies, at the extreme limit of the eye's abilities, but it has become somewhat instinctive - so I need to go to the telescope and check that this has been my exact procedure.
Honestly, I don't know whether this is the optimal technique or not, but it worked for me, because there were some observations that I made in the 80s and 90s that represented the "state of the art" at the time, e.g. detecting the brightest portion of Barnard's Loop in 10x50 binos.
It also helped that I had young eyes...I think that we may lose some sensitivity as we get older.
cheers, Robert
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