Do you have ambidextrous eyeballs

[kinetic]

Hi,

For want of a better term,
I was wondering what are people's experiences with using both
or only one favourite eye at the eyepiece?

Since hitting my 40s and suddenly having the onset of the typical
age related decline in eyesight, I no longer can take my eyesight for
granted like I used to.

I notice little things, that never before bothered me.
One of them is, I always had a favourite eye at the eyepiece.
My right eye could see the best detail on a live view of Jupiter or
Saturn, my left eye was like the lame dicky knee.
It's like the connection between the brain and my right eye was better
tuned or trained, over a lifetime, to work better.
Either that or my left eye was just slightly deficient in some way.
I always had (up to my 40s) 20/20 vision and never needed glasses.

I remember Dr Fred Hollows once saying that after thousands of years
being trained and evolving, the Australian full blood aborigine had better
eyesight than the white settler.
This, he said, was not only because of better health/diet, but because
of the cognitive connection between eye and brain.
They needed their eyesight for survival etc....

This got me thinking that maybe some people can use both eyeballs
just as good as each other at the eyepiece?

I certainly can't, and never could.

Any thoughts or experiences?

regards,
Steve B.

[gb_astro]

My eyes are optically pretty similar. Lately I have been trying to use both eyes, switching every few minutes just to avoid any facial tension. Seems to work.

gb.

[leon]

Just the one for me, probably a habit, but really never tried doing it any other

Leon

[gman]

The word ambidextrous actually relates to the hands, not sure what the word would be pertaining to eyes.

Anyway, I would give my left arm to be ambidextrous!!!

[kinetic]

come on Gman, you know what I meant.....

You're just using my thread for a place to
tell jokes :)

Did you know they can now use foreskin from
circumcisions to give babies born without eyelids
a set of eyelids?
They end up a bit cock-eyed but think of the foresight
they would have!

Steve

[astroron]

Even though I have a lazy left eye, it sees things brighter than my right eye which is the favoured eye.
I was able to see a 13.5 mag Supernova in my left eye that I could not see in the right till I had observed it a lot longer
Ron

[ngcles]

Hi Steve & All,

Yep, I'm very right-eyed and find using my left very uncomfortable.

Best,

Les D

[CoombellKid]

I use both, been like that from the very start. Initially I used just my leftas it was more comfortable. But I read somewhere early on that it was good try using both and have been doing that ever since.I think it is sometime you just get used to doing.regards,CS

[AdrianF]

I tried to cut and paste this comment to send to my phone email from my work account and it was blocked as unacceptable language. Good one tho.

Adrian

[Shawn]

Floaters became an issue for me in one eye, particularly with small EPS, don't do visual that much for that reason, planetary in particular...whereas the CCD chip doesn't worry that much... I had a friend here with a bino viewer bloody great it emphasised the errors in both eyes, couldnt see s$#t...LOL

[Paddy]

Maybe the term would be ambiocular?

I thought mine were roughly equal, but a few months ago did some comparisons on faint galaxies and found that I could see a tad more detail through my left eye, so I use it exclusively. Might be worth retesting on planets though as central vision and peripheral vision might be different stories.

[wavelandscott]

I try to use both but favor my left eye (I am right handed).

I also use binoviewers on occassion and so use them both at the same time!

[Shawn]

And there is the Irony, by the time you want to settle down and do something less physical, So do your eyes...:>)

[AstralTraveller]

I'm very right eye dominant. When I was younger and had excellent eyesight I never though about changing eye. Recently I've tried to use the left eye at the scope, to determine which is sharper, but with limited success. I found the left eye to be too much trouble and just went back to what is easy.

One thing I just can't do at all is use a finder or telrad with my left eye. I've tried but my method is just too ingrained. When I started out I had a straight through finder. To get to the right area I would have both eyes open. That way I saw a zero power view of the sky with my left eye with the cross hair of the finder superimposed on it. Once I was near the object I would close my left eye and finish the slew using the finder. That gives you the best of both worlds; a telrad-like view for coarse slewing but the ability to see many deep-sky objects in the finder.

[hector]

I am Short sighted and one eye is worst than the other. My right eye is the vegetable in normal vision with a script of -2.75 , BUT that is the eye I observe with. The Left is the vegetable at the eyepiece. I have noticed a great sideefect of using my right eye for observing for so long. My barin has learnt to "edit" the images transmitted from the left eye when I concentrate on the right eye. Can be usefull when driving into glare so I am not blinded as much. Strange but seems true.
Andrew Hop-along

[kinetic]

A bit of an update to this old thread.
While viewing tonight I did a bit of self diagnosis on the level
of astigmatism I have.
It seems to be almost a perfectly matched deficiency or degradation
developing over time, with age, per eye.
The diffraction pattern I see on stars at infinity focus when my eyes
are totally relaxed (and out of focus because I need glasses for distance)
is a match in each eye, only mirrored.
This is caused by hardening/ distorting of the cornea and/or lens due to age
apparently.

I googled a pic of a point source diffraction pattern and adjusted it in PS
to try and describe my astigmatism per eye.
Left eye on left, right eye on right. Original at bottom.

My prescription glasses correct for this and when I have them on, a star
at infinity is a pinpoint, both eyes relaxed.
But when I use an eyepiece I hate using my glasses, and so the
Airy disk is distorted.

Sometimes it is also good to read up on the theory of the basics, just as
a refresher.
This page covers quite a lot of interesting theory about magnification,
point source versus extended objects and an explanation of just what
causes diffraction.
http://starizona.com/acb/basics/observing_theory.aspx

Steve